Zebra Mussels (Part 7)

Zebra mussels are native to the Caspian Sea area in Asia, and apparently hitched a ride 
across the Atlantic Ocean in the bilge water of cargo ships. They found a new home in 
North America’s great lakes and have been established there since the late 1980s.

Adult zebra mussels are about one-quarter to one inch long. They congregate on hard 
surfaces such as rocks, boat hulls and other structures in clusters of many thousands 
per square yard. They are notorious for clogging underwater pipes for municipal water 
plants.

They can clog water systems of power plants and water treatment facilities, as well as 
irrigation systems. They can also severely reduce or eliminate native mussel species.

Zebra mussels feed on plankton, the same plankton small game fish need to survive.

An adult female zebra mussel can produce as many as one million eggs per year that hatch 
into free swimming larvae that can easily be transported by boat or bait bucket. They 
were recently discovered in a central Minnesota lake chain, and also were found below 
Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River in South Dakota.