Conch-L's own Tom Watters has been out there making the headlines in the
real world again. He wrote a really wonderful article on Zebras and FW
mussels in the Ohio Historical Society's publication, "Timeline,"
March/April 1998, "The Trouble With Zebras"  with stupendous photos by Gary
Meszaros to accompany it.  Now he's made the newspapers.
 
Below is an article that ran in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch on Sunday,
August 9, along with a great picture of Tom toting a big clunky easter
basket of FW mussels from tank to tank in the lab at Ohio Biological Survey
in Columbus.  (In quoting this article for everyone, I know that I'll
probably be pounded into a pulp by Tom for all the unsuspected-by-me things
Tom doesn't like about the article, misquotes, etc, but it is a very
interesting program that Ohio is conducting to save these embattled shelly
critters and we all ought to know about it!  In addition, it  brings us up
to date on some of the anti-zebra mussel efforts.) See below.
 
Also, anyone who would like to know more about either zebra mussels or our
native freshwater mussel population should go to the Conch-Net website
where Tom has two really fine illustrated articles on the subject.  A
general introduction to the subject is at :
 
<http://coa.acnatsci.org/conchnet/acfwmus1.html>
 
and a more in-depth coverage with lots of references can be found at:
 
<http://coa.acnatsci.org/conchnet/uniowhat.html>
 
Braving the wrath...
 
Lynn Scheu
(that's Louisville, KY , Kevin Cummings!)
 
 
Scientists Race to Save Ohio's Native Mussels:
Rescued mollusks are to be transplanted in 10 ponds
by Bill Bush, Dispatch Staff Reporter
 
With the invasion of the zebra mussel still under way in Ohio Waters, state
and federal wildlife officials and researchers at Ohio State University are
taking steps to insure native mussels aren't wiped out.
 
A seven-year state and federal study is being launched to transform 10
ponds at  The Wilds, a 10,000 acre wildlife refuge in eastern Ohio, into
havens for the Midwest's native mussels, clamlike creatures that live on
the bottoms of lakes, rivers and streams.
 
"We're trying to rescue as many as we can," said Thomas Watters, a senior
research associate with the Ohio Biological Survey at OSU and the lead
researcher on the project.
 
"The problem is, most native mussels have been hit so hard by a variety of
things -- impoundments, pollution, commercial use, et cetera -- that the
zebra mussel is really sort of the straw to break the camel's back. Most
species of mussels are on the decline."
 
The pesky European mollusks invaded the Great Lakes in the mid-1980's,
probably carried in the ballast of a ship. They're still spreading after
having infiltrated waterways from New England to Louisiana.
 
"They're wiping out the nativemussels, and, by the time they come down to
some lower level, it may be too late," Watters said.
 
North America has more than 300 indigenous mussels, more by far than
anywhere else in the world, he said. Native mussels are a vital part of
Ohio's ecosystem. They filter and clean water in streams, rivers and lakes
and provide a link in the food chain, he said.
 
Zebra mussels ball up on the shells of the larger indigenous mussels,
filtering food out of the water before it can reach the native mussels and
starving them. Also having jagged zebra mussels clustered on the native
mussels' shells creates drag from the river current, pulling them from the
sand.
 
"They've evolved to put up with floods, and the water just rolls right over
them, but they've not evolved to put up with these guys," Watters said.
 
The project will determine if researchers can transfer indigenous mussels
into storage at lakes donated by The Wilds, located east of Zanesville.
Researchers are trying to determine which of the refuge's 150 lakes are
suitable for the project, said Dr. Evan Blumer, a wildlife veterinarian at
the facility.
 
The study also could develop techniques for restocking rivers with native
mussels, said Buddy Fazio, an endanfgered-species biologist with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, which is splitting the study's $17,000 cost with
the Department of Natural Resources.
 
It's a science that we're still learning about," he said.
 
Divers will be hired this fall or next spring to remove four common mussel
species and transplant a few hundred of them after a quarantine period to
determine that they aren't carrying any zebra mussel larvae.
 
Half the ponds will be stocked with mussels; the other half will have fish
carrying mussel larvae. Almost all indigenous mussels require a fish host
to spread their larvae, Watters said.
 
Some species have evolved to look like small fish or to disguise their
larvae to look like worms to lure a host fish close enough to be sprayed
with the larvae.
 
The study will be completed before the zebra mussel situation gets out of
hand, Fazio said.
 
"The worst threat right now has been in Lake Erie and the Ohio River. They
build up to a level of being almost a carpet on the bottom."
 
Scientists have mixed feelings about Lake Erie's zebra mussels, which have
been credited with cleaning the water by removing sediment and blamed for
clogging water intake lines for power plants and other industries.
 
Controlled outdoor ponds might become temporary emergency homes for native
mussels while the zebra mussel explosion plays out, Fazio said. The hope is
to one day move the native mussels back.
 
"Some may have to have a new location as a home," Fazio said. "Because of
natural phenomena, we may be able to put them back in their original places
after a while. It all depends on what the zebra mussels do."