zebra mussel cull?

I read, on Friday night, in my local evening paper that scientists are going to be culling zebra mussels around water extraction facilities. They will be using food designed to kill the mussels because they are, apparently, clogging up extraction filters. My worry is that if any coarse fish eat these mussels are they too going to end up dead?

I have not done nay searching on this but I certainly shall be doing.

That is worrying Kevan, who knows what will happen?
We have all heard about the problems that zebras are causing, but have they really looked into the effect the cull might have?

Keep us informed mate.

Steve.

If ever zebra mussels populated the river systems in the way they have in the Irish rivers then I think you might be in a very small minority if you advocate not taking action.

If you are wondering if their extermination methods are harmful to fish then I suggest you read up some of the literature on Irish rivers where they are 2 feet deep in the mussels. It would suggest that if the fish eat them then the likelyhood is that their fish would be the size of whales by now and I think you are worrying needlessly and that you await the results.

Have a look <a href='http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/exotics/zmoverview.html' target='_blank'>here[url/]

Even if it did kill a few fish, which I doubt, I would suggest that this is more preferable than killing a river because for a fishermen thats what it means.
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OOps!

I have to add that the method of the proposed cull also worries me. Apparently, I don't have the full details as the article was very brief, the mussles will be targetted with a bait made of 'fat'. Whether this will have a non water soluble coating I don't know. A poison is going to be inserted into the fat. Now, disregarding whether fish will eat zebra mussels or not, will coarse fish eat these poisoned baits?

I have done some Googling and have found that yes, zebra mussels are indeed a very real pest. They can cause major damage to water machinery. It's just this poisoning thing that has set alarm bells ringing for me. I am trying to find out more and if I do I will post it here.

Potassium chloride is what's in the proposed capsules they'll use, ie poison. No idea what that might do to fish...

The feed wll probably be something similar to the bio-encapsulated foods used in feeding molluscs in aquaculture. The are measured in microns rather than millimetres and so would be unlikely to be recognised as food even by fish from last year's spawning.

They've used a similar method overseas where mussels are endemic - New Zealand I think.

There was a bit about it on the EA site the other day, I think there was a press release.

I've reeled in quite a few zebra mussels attached to stones whilst roving the Thames south of Oxford

?The feed wll probably be something similar to the bio-encapsulated foods used in feeding molluscs in aquaculture. The are measured in microns rather than millimetres and so would be unlikely to be recognised as food even by fish from last year's spawning.?

That might well be true but what about bioaccumulation through the food chain?

DDT springs to mind here and the loss of raptors!!!!

Raptors are good, coz the black-death hate them!

Once watched an osprey hunting and you should have see the things clear off rapido.. And the osprey didn?t take any fish either!

"That might well be true but what about bioaccumulation through the food chain?"

Not a problem with Potassium Chloride, it's just a metal salt which will not have any measurable effects on the environment post-application. The reason for the lipid coating on the delivery feed is to "trick" the mussels into thinking it's food then they don't reject it, once ingested the resulting chemical imbalance will kill the mussel but then it'll be massively diluted and harmlessly disperse.

Zebra mussels are a major problem in North America as well as Ireland and unfortunately no successful method of eradicating them has been found thus far. It is very invasive and will colonise a waterway in a very short amount of time. They are ecologically and economically very undesirable little creatures much worse than signal crayfish and, as the U.S. is under considerable threat from them, I would guess that, with their resources they will eventually find a way of eradicating them.

To give those that aren't aware, an inkling of the extent of the problem they can cause, they have been recorded at over a million per square yard in the States and they will stick to anything including living things so it will be goodbye to the native mussel if they go unchecked here. Water pipes are soon colonised and totally blocked and they attach themselves to boats as well so they have a bus service to other areas they havn't reached before. They can completely cover a river bed thus denying access to to the food that fish nomally feed off when they aren't scoffing boilies so a decline in fishing is inevitable.

Nasty little blighters all round and best knocked on the head before they become a serious problem here.