Too much mussel

[Hamilton Reef]

Too much mussel: Mollusk explosion could do great harm to Lake Michigan sport-fishing industry

An estimated 330 trillion quagga mussels carpet vast areas of Lake Michigan's underbelly. The foreign mollusks literally are sucking the aquatic life out of the water and depositing it on the lake bottom, according to new scientific data.

"It's unbelievable, the changes that are happening," said Gary Fahnenstiel, a senior ecologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Lake Michigan Field State in Muskegon. "The quagga mussel population has exploded and is taking over the lake bottom."

Nalepa authored a soon-to-be-released study that concluded quagga mussels have seized control of the Lake Michigan ecosystem. He said the mussels have displaced native amphipods that fish eat, trapped vast quantities of critical nutrients on the lake bottom, and displaced nearly all zebra mussels in the lake.

"It's astounding to me that there is almost four times more dreissena mussels (by weight) in the lake than prey fish," said Tom Nalepa, a NOAA research biologist.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/01/mon_too_much_mussel_mollusk_ex.html

[Pier Pressure]

This is what happened to Lake Huron and we all know what Huron's salmon fishery once was and what it is today.:sad: Let's hope that Lake Michigan doesn't meet the same fate.

[Bigmounts]

There is no hope! It is inevitable that Lake Michigan will suffer the same fate as Huron! How many years? Nobody knows, but eventually the lakes will no longer be able to sustain life as we know it. These mussles are sucking the life right out of it. Not to mention the Asian Carp are on the way. Man sure knows how to **** things up!

[Fishndude]

Gee, didn't see this coming. :rolleyes:

This is an amazingly dire situation, and it is my slightly-educated opinion that the US Fisheries and Wildlife Service needs to work with the individual States surrounding the Great Lakes to pull native mollusks out of the Great Lakes, and implant them into lakes which have not been invaded by Zebra and Quagga Mussels; and then introduce some sort of parasite which will attack the Zebra and Quagga Mussels, and kill them ALL. At some point, the Zebra and Quagga Mussels will be gone, and the parasites will die off, and the Govt agencies would be able to re-introduce the native Mussels to the Great Lakes.

I would guess that this action might take decades to complete; but I really see no alternative, if we want to save our lakes from these invaders. They are not slowing their spread, and it seems inevitable that they will completely overtake the lakes (with the possible exception of Superior, because it is too cold for them to be prolific) and destroy the ecosystems for good.

Sorry, but I have heard people talking about Huron for years, now; saying how it is coming back; and how the baitfish are rebounding, etc. Nobody who said those things supported their statements with any kind of scientific evidence, and just kind of stated opinions - which admittedly is what I am doing. But I do read the studies, and they do not support that baitfish populations are rebounding at all - they are declining every single year. Sure there are fish to be caught in lake Huron, but there are less every year than there were the year before. Sure there are baitfish, but fewer every year. So do we wait until the only thing left is a blanket of Mussels covering the bottom of our lakes before we take drastic action? That just does not seem like a very good plan to me.

The truth of the matter is clear, if you drive through any coastal cities on lake Huron, and check out the marinas. Tawas, Oscoda, Harrisville, Rogers City, etc. Tons of empty slips, where the marinas used to have 2 year waiting lists for slips. Sure the economy is bad, but this happened before the economic crash we have. The FISHING boats are missing, and the same thing will happen @ Manistee, Ludington, Frankfort, St Joseph, etc; when the Kings die out for lack of Alewives. Sorry, but that is the sad fact of the matter.

[CAPT HEAVY]

I agree with you to a point. The salmon fishing has crashed to a point that they are really by catch. Not really worth fishing for them. But the Lake trout numbers are incredible. On any day from May till about mid August double digits of Lakers are the norm. As for the empty slips, yes the lack of salmon has made many rec. fisherman and charter capts. head west. The bad press of Lake Huron and gas prices have taken their toll also. There are a ton of shiners in the harbor here in Harrisville. That has brought Walleye fishing here in the fall. Im not a scientists but as a recently retired chater capt. I laugh when I hear that there are no fish in Huron. I know the southern end is a different story. I talk to a memeber of the DNR on a regular basis, he was involved with the fish collection at Rogers City and this year was great. So was the fishing! Yes there have been drastic changes you can no longer drag 4 riggers and a couple of dipsies and fill your cooler, but with a little time patience and know how, there is great fishing to be had. My 2 cents:)

[jd_7655]

Copper is extreemly toxic to mussles and all other inverebrates it will kill them. Maybe the DNR should look into putting copper mesh on the bottom of the lake in high density areas just a thought. Or what about under water feilds of copper spikes stuck in the mud like fertalizer sticks.

I've read that thier using copper on water intakes and stuff to keep mussle off they won't go anywhere near it.

The way I see it why not spend a few 100 mil. on it. The governments pissing money away everywehre esle.

[thousandcasts]

Another big problem is that these last few brutal winters are putting a hurt on the alewife population as well. Even with all the mussles messing things up, you still get a good ale crop when we get a milder winter. This massive cold B.S. that we've got the last couple years hasn't been the thing we need. The colder that water gets, the more ales that die. Anyone who saw the harbors last year saw a ton of small ales, so that indicates a good hatch. The problem is how many of those little ones survive a brutal winter like this?

[Fishndude]

Back in the 70's (when I was growing up) the kind of winter we had last year, and are having this year, were the norm. There was always a period of a couple weeks where the lows dipped well below zero and the highs were in the single digits above. And the Alewives were REALLY abundant. They died off in Summer, when the water warmed, and washed up on beaches in huge numbers. In Bay City they used front end loaders and dump trucks to remove the worst of them, each summer. The cold winters did not kill off the Ales back then, and they shouldn't now. But the competition from the Mussels is doing a marvelous job of removing them. :rant:

[milledad]

The idea of introducing a paracite or preadator to eat these little buggers sounds great on the surface. The problem is that it's just not that easy. There may not be a paracite or virus that attacks them, and if it does, what else does it attack. Same with preadators, I'm sure something eats them, but what else do they eat? When you start introducing more non-native species to combat a problem like this, often you are just compounding the problem.

As for the copper idea, sounds good as well, but like the study says, these guys have taken over the bottom of the lake. It's not just a few dense patches. They are out there in mass, all over the place. Just the surface area of Lk. MI. is over 22,000 sq miles. We can't get the funding to take care of the lakes as it is, enough copper to take care of this problem is not economicaly possible. Not to mention introducing that ammount of heavy metal to the water would have a lot of other undesirable effects.

Unfortunately I'm affraid we might just have to prepare for an even bigger decline. It will rebound eventually, I just hope I'm around to see it. Circle of life...and Great Lakes shipping.:(

[STEINFISHSKI]

That's a lot of quaggas. I wonder if they will die out like the zebras over time. It seems like the zebra mussels took over quickly but didn't last.

[milledad]

That's a lot of quaggas. I wonder if they will die out like the zebras over time. It seems like the zebra mussels took over quickly but didn't last.

There will almost certainly be a spike to start. It's pretty common to see a spike right away with invasive species. Their only control with no natural predators is lack of resources. So, they explode exponentially until that runs out. Then they die back. The problem is that it sounds like these guys are filtering and allocating nutrients to the lake floor at a much more rapid rate than the zebras did. If they start dieing back because of lack of food, we are already in deep trouble.

[ausable_steelhead]

I wonder if they will die out like the zebras over time. It seems like the zebra mussels took over quickly but didn't last.

I believe they've replaced the zebs because they out compete them. From what I've read on quagga mussels, they filter even more nutrients then zebras from the water:dizzy:. And to think, I just moved to this side:rolleyes:.....