By Devlin Patterson

The Zebra mussel is becoming a huge pest to our fresh waters of Nova Scotia, originally native to the lakes of southeast Russia. This alien species are Prodigious eaters, they filter out nearly all the phytoplankton (and small zooplankton) in the 15-40 micrometer size.

Zebra mussels is a fresh water mollusk that looks like a mussel, and like them they attach themselves to rocks and other items just a marine mussels do. However Zebra mussels have a D shaped shell which is have a striped pattern commonly seen on their shells, though not all shells bear this pattern. They are usually about the size of a fingernail, but can grow to a maximum length of nearly 5.1 cm

The life span of a zebra mussel is about four to five years with

the female starting to reproducing at two years of age.

It is thought that they were accidentally brought to Canada on the hulls or in the ballast water of vessels from Europe. Zebra mussels were first discovered in 1988 in Lake St. Clair which is a small lake between Lake Erie and Lake Huron. From there they have branch out and now affect many other lakes and rivers in Canada.

Although not located on the maps we know that they have infested many waters from Manitoba to the Atlantic provinces. The great lakes tend to be more damaged by this invading species.

There is evidence These mussels have permanently changed the ecosystem. Before the mussels invaded, many Lakes waters were mostly cloudy and millions of tiny microorganisms provided a food base for fish.

Because the mussels filter the microorganisms, the waters today are surprisingly clear, allowing light to penetrate to greater depths, which in turn promotes prolific, nuisance algae blooms.

They impact an ecosystem by removing most of the food for microscopic zooplankton and filter feeders, which in turn support larval and juvenile fishes and other animals, zebra mussels can effectively starve the native populations .

Once zebra mussels become established in a water body, they are impossible to eradicate with the technology currently available. Many chemicals kill zebra mussels, but they are so tolerant and tough that everything in the water would have to be poisoned to destroy the mussel. Most commercial water users rely on chemicals such as chlorine, filters, or scraping to remove mussels from their boats and facilities