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May 2008 |
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Keeping the mussels at bay, not an easy task within a county of lakes |
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Friday, 28 March 2008 |
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 The red and white of private fishing boats compliment the blue of Crowley Lake during fishing season. If the Quagga Mussels procreate their way into the waters of Mono County, only marina-owned boats will be permitted on the water.MAMMOTH TIMES PHOTOS/SUSAN MORNING
“It would be a disaster for boating recreation if we had to close the lakes to private boats,” said John Frederickson, owner/operator of both the Crowley Lake and June Lake marinas. “The boaters who visit our area go from one lake to another. It would be very easy for them to transfer the mussels to the different bodies of water if their boats aren't inspected.”
It was January, 2007 when Eric Virgin was making underwater repairs at a Lake Mead boat harbor and noticed a small mussel attached to a steel cable. Subsequent surveys found the mussel throughout Lake Mead's lower basin, with smaller numbers at a few sites downstream in lakes Mojave and Havasu and the Colorado River. In May 2007, the California Science Advisory Panel issued a response to the Zebra/Quagga Mussel invasion in the West. The report states that if the mussels are not eradicated or contained, these populations will seed secondary invasions across western North America. Potential impacts include hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of dollars in direct economic costs, along with large, but unquantified, indirect economic and environmental costs.
So far the Quagga mussel hasn't been found in any of the local waterways. “The potential impact the Quagga Mussel would have on our area may be even more significant than that of the mudsnail,” said Dan Lyster, Director of Economic Development for Mono County.
“Mono County might not have the mussels yet, but preliminary water sampling by Crowley Lake Fish Camp and the LADWP suggests that some of our lakes have suitable water chemistry and other necessary environmental conditions for the mussels,” said Frederickson. “The threat is real.”
“The Board of Supervisors for Mono County is gathering information on the quagga mussel from all agencies,” said Supervisor Hap Hazard. “This can be a significant issue and because this is a tourist-based economy we can't overreact. We will do what we can based on the information we receive.”
Both species of mussel are non-native aquatic mollusks that disrupt the natural food chain and release toxins that affect other aquatic species. Boats are the primary transporters of the Zebra and Quagga Mussels. The Quagga can attach itself to boat trailers, cooling systems, boat hulls and steering equipment. Water in boat engines, bilges, live wells and buckets can carry mussel larvae to other water bodies, which can lead to a mussel infestation. This can potentially lead to the closure of boating in affected waterways.
Mark Drew, Eastern Sierra Program Manager for CalTrout stated that the potential invasion of the Quagga Mussel into Mono County is of great concern. “There are two main issues regarding the Quagga Mussel: mussels disrupting the food chain and creating an imbalance in the habitat and second, the potential implications they will have on the infrastructure of the economy,” Drew said. “They can reproduce quickly enough to clog the water systems, and getting rid of them is expensive and labor intensive.”
Drew stated that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is also very concerned about the mussels and is sponsoring a workshop in April in Bishop to discuss the issues. “In response to the perceived threat the agencies have a sense of urgency and are trying to be proactive in addressing the concerns. This is being taken very seriously. It would behoove all relevant parties to pay attention and respond accordingly to ensure that the mussels do not become established up here in the Eastern Sierra.”
Clarence Martin from the LADWP said they have been testing the waters in Inyo and Mono counties and so far the mussel hasn't been detected. “The LADWP Board is going to make recommendations regarding Crowley Lake, but we don't know yet what they will be,” Martin said. “We will probably at a minimum be doing boat inspections at Crowley Lake because potentially this has huge ramifications.”
Emile Rummel, Mammoth Lakes Sports Fishing president and Hot Creek Hatchery Foundation board member, said the foundation is investigating a filtration system to protect the raceways where the fish are growing up in, but it still has to be tested. “The mussel is on everybody's mind and we are hoping we can come up with something to prevent it from getting into our waters,” Rummel said.
The Department of Fish and Game and several other state and federal agencies are taking a statewide response to both the zebra and quagga mussels,” said Alexia Retallack from the Department of Fish and Game (DFG). “We are putting information out in the regulations that go out to boaters and are circulated to anglers around the state. We are educating the public as much as we can. The DFG has put on training around the state in how to inspect the boats and how to learn prevention.” More than 300 people have been trained around the state and about 100 of them are non-state employees, and the demand for training is reportedly increasing. “Our effort has been to really educate the public. That's how the mussels were detected in San Justo Reservoir in central California,” Retallack said.
The DFG doesn't have the authority to close private property lakes, but they can stop boats that have mussels attached. It's still up to the owner of the water, district and land owners to deal with their private property rights.
Mike Giusti, Senior Environmental Scientist for the DFG, was one of the first in California to quarantine a vessel because of the quagga mussel. “We are trying to get out the message of 'Clean, Drain and Dry' to the boaters,” Giusti said. “They have to wipe down the boat of all vegetation regardless if they have come from an infected lake or not. The plugs should be taken out so there is no water in the boats. Where you have standing water you have the potential for microscopic mussels to survive.”
Harry Morse, Department of Fish and Game Public Information Officer, said they are setting up stations to inspect boats at the state borders. “Boats coming out of Arizona and Nevada into California are being inspected,” Morse said. “We are trying to hit key areas and have found several mussels that were attached to the boats. We also just completed training for several other dogs who went through the dog academy and are now able to help with the mussel detection.”
The Dec. 27, 2007, issue of the Mammoth Times printed an article on the DFG and their Cal-Tips program, which is designed to help game wardens with, among other issues, detecting quagga mussels. DFG employee Lynette Shimek has a German Shepard named “Ellen,” who can zoom in on Quagga Mussels that have attached themselves to boats and trailers. Shimek's goal is to have teams available to travel throughout the state. “We will be able to assist wardens wherever they are needed as well as being able to do evidence searches, find lost children and detect invasive species like the Quagga Mussel,” Shimek said. “We also have five new dual purpose teams going through the academy right now and we are training all twelve teams to detect Zebra Mussels, as well as other odors.”
Other bodies of water in California are already feeling the effects of the mussel invasion. For example, San Benito County Public Works closed the San Justo Reservoir in Hollister to all boating activity. On March 4, the Board of Directors of the Casitas Municipal Water District in Santa Barbara County adopted a resolution temporarily restricting outside boats, including canoes, kayaks and float tubes from entering the Lake Casitas Recreation Area for at least one year. Boats currently stored or moored at Lake Casitas can continue to use the lake, but if the boat is removed it will be allowed to return only after passing inspection and a 10-day quarantine period.
“We have had a little loss in business since closing the lake to private boats, but we also have camping and biking. People will be inconvenienced, but the lake businesses are going out of their way to find other programs,” said gatekeeper Chris Morris from Lake Casitas. One of the solutions they've come up with is to put a seal of some kind on private boats, which can be removed after 10 days, so the officials at Lake Casitas know that the boat hasn't been in any other waters during that period. “We have a lot of expensive filtration equipment, and our reservoir serves 60,000 Santa Barbara County residents, so if the mussel gets into Lake Casitas, we are in trouble.” The Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors was scheduled to meet on Tuesday, March 25, to discuss whether or not to close Lake Cachuma to private boating.
As for the waters of Inyo and Mono counties, so far it's a wait and see process. The economy relies on the fishing industry, and the fishing industry in turn relies on clean, unaffected water. At this point it's apparently up to boaters and anglers to be diligent in making sure they aren't carrying any stowaways when they float their boats in our waterways.
More information on the Quagga Mussel and other invasive species is available at www.dfg.ca.gov.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 April 2008 )
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