Received this from Dale Cornelius the biologist for Pomme de Terre Lake, I think it is some very good information and hope that everyone will think about doing what is suggested here.      

Zebra mussels first appeared in North America about 1988 in ballast water dumped from visiting ships. Since that time they have spread to all the Great Lakes and many of the inland lakes and rivers. In ten years Zebra Mussels have spread from Lake St. Clair to the following lakes and rivers: Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Champlain, Mississippi River, Erie Canal, Hudson River and most lakes and rivers connected to them.  The above is only a partial list please see the maps for a more complete listing. Zebra Mussels have even been collected from water bodies in California. Pleasure boats contaminated with Zebra Mussels can transport them to uncontaminated water bodies. Outboard motor cooling systems are a favorite hiding place for Zebra Mussels and may be transported unseen.

In Canada Zebra Mussels have infested virtually every water way connected to the Great Lakes the Trent Canal, Rideau  Canal, Kawartha Lakes Region, Lake Simcoe, Otonabee River and Rice Lake. In ZeeStop's home city Peterborough, the fountain in Little Lake was colonized by Zebra Mussels and shut down for several months. The fountain pump a reconditioned unit purchased in 1995 for $26,000 was burned out because of the heavy Zebra Mussel build-up on the intake. This is what may happen to your intake and pump if Zebra Mussels are in the water and you do not protect it. In the veliger stage they may occupy the entire plumbing system costing thousands of dollars to repair or replace.

         Zebra Mussel Alert!
If you bring a boat to any Missouri lakes after being in other state's waters please follow the following precautions to prevent the spread of Zebra Mussels into our lakes.

1.  Inspect your boat hull, drive unit, and all outside parts of your boat and trailer for small Zebra striped mussels. Adult Zebras are only 1/4 to 1 inch in length. Scrape off and trash any suspected mussels.

2. Drain water from the motor, livewells, transom wells before you leave any water body or in an area away from any stream, lake or water body or storm drain system.

3. Dump leftover bait buckets on land and away from water, before leaving any water body.

4. Rinse and dry the hull, livewells and any other parts of the boat that get wet while in the water with hard spray from a garden hose. If your boat was in infested water for a long period of time, rinse with hot water (140F) or use a car wash with high pressure hot water.

5. Let the boat dry outside in the sun for 5 days.

Zebra mussels are a non-native species that can have a devastating effect on fishing and cause many problems for lake users.  Please help us to keep them out of Missouri! For more information visit www.conservation.state.mo.us

The Zebra Mussel shells in this photo are mostly 2 to 3 feet deep along the Green Bay shoreline on UW Green Bay's Cofrin Arboretum. The empty shells accumulate in this way only in certain areas, apparently due to circulation patterns in the bay. It is not difficult to imagine that they have a strong direct influence on the ability of other animals and plants to live on these sites, in additon to their effect on the aquatic system when they are alive.

Are Zebra Mussels Re-Shaping Great Lakes Shorelines?

Walking along Great Lakes' shorelines, observers will likely see a lot more shells today than in previous years. The masses of shells come from Zebra Mussels and their cousins, the Quagga Mussel, two alien species which have invaded the Great Lakes.

Zebra Mussels arrived in the Great Lakes around 1986 and were first discovered in Lake St. Clair, located between lakes Huron and Erie. They were probably first introduced with the discharge of ballast water from a European freighter. There are now millions of these molluscs living in the Great Lakes system. They have an incredibly rapid reproductive growth and no natural predators in North America. Since the late 1980s the mussels have spread to all the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River system and many inland lakes (see map below).

Zebra Mussels can significantly change the nature of the lake bottom, affecting fish habitat and spawning. In zones near the shore where mussel populations dominate, they appear to be changing the natural process along the shoreline by trapping nutrients and disrupting the normal flow of these nutrients into deeper waters. The mussels also excrete nutrients creating an environment that may be linked to water quality problems, such as algal fouling on rocky shorelines, off-tastes in drinking water and lethal outbreaks of botulism in wildlife, especially during warm water periods.

But these invasive mussels have an impact beyond changing the lake bottom. Mussels eat by filtering algae from the water. This is the same food source for many species of native fish and other organisms. Overall, the impact is a reduction in the amount of food available to native species. In fact, Zebra Mussels have caused drastic declines in the native Great Lakes mussels commonly called clams. They infest the exposed clamshell to the extent the clam cannot get enough food to survive.

Industries that use river water for cooling and other processes spend millions of dollars per year to remove the encrusted mussels clogging intake or outflow pipes and structures. The sharp shells can also be a danger to swimmers. Decay odour along beaches and historical sites like shipwrecks encrusted with mussels are having a negative impact on tourism in many areas around the Great Lakes.

Over the past three years, a group of scientists from the University of Waterloo, the National Water Research Institute of Environment Canada, and the Ontario Ministries of the Environment and Natural Resources have been investigating the effects of mussels on the natural environment in the east end of Lake Erie. The fieldwork will be completed in 2003 and results will be available in the next two years.

Help Prevent the Spread

Zebra Mussels are transported from one lake or river system to another by hitch-hiking on boats, boat trailers, barges, sea planes and other aquatic equipment. Juvenile and adult mussels can attach to boat hulls, engines, anchors, and other submerged equipment, as well as to plant material that may get caught on boats and trailers. In their microscopic juvenile stage, they can also be carried in boat bilge water, live wells, bait buckets, and SCUBA gear.

By taking a few precautionary steps after boating and fishing, people living along or visiting the shoreline can prevent the spread of mussels.

• Inspect boat and trailer carefully for mussels and aquatic vegetation and discard in the trash.
• Drain all water from the boat, including the bilge, live well and engine cooling system.
• Dry the boat and trailer in the sun for at least five days, or if you use your boat sooner, rinse off the boat, trailer, anchor, anchor line, bumpers, and engine with hot water or at a car wash.
• Leave live aquatic bait behind – either give it to someone using the same waterbody, or discard it in the trash.
• Cottagers, homeowners and businesses who draw water directly from a zebra mussel infested waterbody will need to protect their system from infestation.

There are no known methods for eliminating Zebra Mussels from an area once they have become established. Public assistance in preventing the spread of this highly invasive species and reporting new infestations is essential to help reduce their negative impacts on the local environment and economy.