TOPEKA - Acting on a report from an alert angler, the Kansas
Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) has confirmed the presence of
zebra mussels in Lake Shawnee. Zebra mussels are bean-sized mollusks with
striped, sharp-edged, two-part shells. They were found at multiple locations on
rocks and on underwater portions of a dock ladder. The discovery brings the
total of Kansas lakes infested with zebra mussels to 19 and highlights the need
for anglers and boaters to know the dangers of moving water and bait fish
between lakes.
"We were notified about the zebra mussels by a conscientious angler who
found them on a piece of wood he pulled from the lake," said Jessica
Howell, KDWPT Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator. "This is a perfect
example of how important it is for the public to be vigilant and report
anything they suspect could be an aquatic nuisance species," she added.
Lake Shawnee is a heavily-used 416-acre lake owned by Shawnee County. "The
presence of zebra mussels in Lake Shawnee will not in any way change the
mission of Shawnee County Parks and Recreation of providing quality parks, golf
courses and recreation facilities and opportunities to meet the recreational
needs and interests of rural and urban residents throughout Shawnee County.
Lake Shawnee will continue to be a gem in the area for recreational pursuits to
hundreds of thousands of people yearly," said Terry Bertels,
Parks Director, Shawnee County Parks and Recreation.
The lake will be added to the list of ANS-designated waters in Kansas, and
notices will be posted at various locations around the lake. Other lakes in
northeast Kansas with zebra mussel infestations include Perry, Milford and Melvern reservoirs. Like those lakes, Lake Shawnee is safe
to use for a variety of recreational activities. Since the sharp-shelled zebra
mussels attach to solid objects, visitors should be careful when handling
mussel-encrusted objects and when grabbing an underwater object when they can't
see what their hands may be grasping. Visitors should protect their feet when
walking on underwater or shoreline rocks, a helpful precaution any time they
are outdoors.
There is no known method to rid a lake of zebra mussels. According to Howell,
prevention is the best way to avoid spreading ANS. "All lake users should
take precautions to prevent the movement of ANS from those waters," she
said. "The zebra mussels probably were accidentally carried to the lake
from another location in the water from boats or bait buckets." Anglers
and boaters should thoroughly clean, drain and dry their boats and equipment
after using any body of water. Regulations require that they drain livewells
and bilges and remove drain plugs from all vessels prior to transport from any
Kansas water on a public highway. Further, people should not take water away
from the lake in bait buckets or for aquariums or any other use. Also, anglers
cannot transport live fish from any ANS-designated water.
Zebra mussels can produce huge populations in a short time and do not require a
host fish to reproduce. A large female zebra mussel can produce 1 million eggs,
and then fertilized eggs develop into microscopic veligers
invisible to the naked eye. Veligers drift in the
water for up to two weeks before they settle out as young mussels which quickly
grow to adult size and reproduce during their first summer of life.
After settling, zebra mussels develop byssal threads
that attach their shells to submerged hard surfaces such as rocks, piers, and
flooded timber. They also attach to pipes, water intake structures, boat hulls,
propellers, and submerged parts of outboard motors. As populations increase,
they can clog intake pipes and prevent water treatment and electrical
generating plants from drawing water. In 2012, two Kansas communities, Council Grove
and Osage City, experienced temporary water shortages from zebra mussel
infestations before water intake structures could be cleaned up. Removing large
numbers of zebra mussels to ensure adequate water flow can be labor-intensive
and costly.
Zebra mussels are native to the Black and Caspian seas of western Asia and
eastern Europe and were spread around the world in the ballast water of cargo
ships. They were discovered in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River in 1988 and
quickly spread throughout the Great Lakes and other rivers including the
Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas and Hudson. In 2003, they were
discovered in Kansas in El Dorado Reservoir. Despite public education efforts
to alert boaters about the dangers of zebra mussels and how to prevent
spreading them, the species continues to show up in new lakes every year.
Moving water in boats and bait buckets has been identified as a likely vector.
Zebra mussels are just one of the non-native aquatic species that threaten our
waters and native wildlife. Boaters and anglers must remember to follow
regulations and precautions that will prevent their spread:
- Clean, drain and dry boats and
equipment between uses
- Use wild-caught bait only in the
lake or pool where it was caught
- Do not move live fish from waters
infested with zebra mussels or other aquatic nuisance species
- Drain livewells and bilges and
remove drain plugs from all vessels prior to transport from any Kansas
water on a public highway.
For more information about aquatic nuisance species in Kansas, report a
possible ANS, or see a list of ANS-designated waters, visit ProtectKSWaters.org
Advertising