There is an educational effort being taken by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the state of Utah to prevent the spread of the quagga mussel. The quagga mussel is a small freshwater bivalve mollusk with a dark and white pattern along it’s shell. They are usually less than an inch long. Although small, these invasive mussels can collect in huge colonies, literally carpeting underwater surfaces. They can live three to five years and can release 30,000 to 40,000 microscopic fertilized eggs, called veligers, in a single breeding cycle – up to a half million fertilized eggs in a year. A single cup of water left in a bilge can contain thousands of these invaders.
Quagga mussels attach themselves to a number of surfaces including boat hulls, engine intakes, livewells, bilges, anchor lines, water intake valves, canals, pipes, aqueducts and dams. This causes increased maintenance costs. In the United States, Congressional researchers estimated that invasive mussels alone cost the power industry $3.1 billion from 1993-1999, while their impact on industries, businesses and communities totals more than 5 billion.
So how can us boaters help? Easy. Inspect and clean you water vessel (powerboat, sailboat, bassboat, jetski, zodiac, yes, all of ‘em) after removing it from every waterway. It is really very easy and takes little time and we’ve also recently discovered that some of our favorite boat cleaning products make this job even easier.
We were told recently the bio-kleen boat and trailer passed the mussel inspection at Lake Powell in Utah with flying colors. Not a single quagga mussel was found in spite of the fact that the boat originates from Michigan, a state that has a high population of the mussel in the waterways. Bio-Kleen credits the easy inspection to cleaning the bilge with the bilge cleaner after boating in every waterway. A quaternary sanitizer included in the product keeps the bilge and livewells free of invasive species eggs. Also cleaning the hull, props, exhaust pipes, trailers, anchor and dock lines with hull cleaner will kill the mussels and eggs due to the phosphoric blend in the cleaner. Not to mention it dissolves unsightly calcification and scum lines at the same time. Dual action – that’s what I’m talking about… Be sure to take a few minutes after pulling you boat from each waterway to protect your boat and the environment from these nasty invaders. Think of the alternative – mussel infestations will close your local waterway. Yeah, that’s what we thought.