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.

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We’ve seen a number of demonstration videos that claim you have to first wet sand the fiberglass surface (sometimes with 2-3 different applications using a finer grade grit each time), then follow up with a heavy compound, sometimes another compound, and then, finally, buff the fiberglass boat hull with a marine polish. Whew! It’s a lot of work, which is why the professionals at marinas and marine detailing businesses charge big bucks to restore the fiberglass on someones boat hull. Granted, if you have some deep scratches in your fiberglass, you’ll need to wet sand those areas first; but with using this process it seems to take out most of those steps.

You can hear the guy in the video on the orbital mention that he’s not using a lot of pressure and it’s getting the job done. He says “with the 3M compound I’d feel like I just got done with a 20 minute workout after 5 minutes of buffing.”  This application with the Bio-Kleen Restore & Shine seems to go pretty quickly and seems easy enough to restore your own fiberglass at home, without taking it to a professional buffing place and shelling out a lot of cash.

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