Zebra mussels headed for Lake of the Woods?

[lakevet]

Adult Zebra mussels have been found in Sand Lake in Itasca Couunty. Just so happens that Sand lake empties out into what becomes the Bigfork river, which empties into Rainy River which empties into Lake of the Woods which empties eventually into Lake Winnipeg.

That is a lot of water potentially infested.

Lakevet

[jentz]

Got a map??Hows the Bigfork empty in to the rainy.Sand lake just north of Bowstring??

[maxpower117]

Whats the concern?

[CANOPY SAM]

Both the Bigfork, and Little Fork Rivers flow north to the Rainy River.

A guy's gotta rationalize at some point that no matter how hard we try to prevent it, every one of these "invasive" species is going to make it into virtually every water out there.

Sometimes good, sometimes bad, it is what it is.

I'd be kinda surprised if they weren't already in there...somewhere...

[lichen fox]

Just don't want your outboard to end up looking like this!

[lakevet]

Has potential to change fishery. Increased water clarity could cause shifts in things.

Lakevet

[Scoot]

Whats the concern?

Seriously???

I agree with Canopy Sam that it's fairly inevitable, but I don't agree that it's sometimes good, sometimes bad. Nothing good will come from zebra mussels in LOW...

And the pic of the outboard is crappy, but the huge change to the fishery is what's really crappy. Will it be doom and gloom and the end of LOW? No, I seriously doubt it. But will it change it hugely and to the negative? Yes, I'm quite sure it will.

[bobbymalone]

Increased water clarity could cause shifts in things.

It's not so much could as much as it is will.

when you affect stuff like light penetration, it has effects at the bottom of food chain, which ripple on up.

[Ballyhoo]

Much of LOW's water clarity is from the iron content in the water. What will mussels do to that? In other lakes the clarity is from other reasons and filtered out. I am not saying it won't clear up, I am not sure what it will do.

[EBass]

Fished Royalton on da Sippi this past weekend. There are piles and piles of dead zeeb shells. With all the flooding we get I don't think zeebs can florish in the volatile rivers we have. Lakes on the other hand.....

[JBMasterAngler]

Maybe they will kill off all the spiny water flea

[kfk]

There you go!

[CANOPY SAM]

If I remember correctly I think it was Zebra Mussels that they figure pretty much saved Lake Erie. I might be wrong, but again, if I recall correctly, as a filter feeder, they sort of cleaned all the "toxics" out of the lake, and greatly improved the water clarity, to the point of bringing back the fishery from the brink of collapse.

Another example would be Millfoil in many of our southern lakes. Although Milfoil is a huge inconvenience, it's been a giant blessing for fish, in that it supplies great cover and structure, as well as enriching the lakes environment.

Not being disagreeable. I just try to look at the glass half full, instead of half empty. I know there are tons of drawbacks with these critters, but I think, sometimes, they're not all bad.

[jerkbait]

I haved wondered what will happen when the y do make it to LOTW. I don't think they will ever clear the darkness of the water, but I wonder if they will filter out all of the phosferous in the lake that creats those big algea blooms in the late summer and fall.

[CaptainMusky]

Those folks that leave their boats in the water will have some major issues. Ive seen boats on Mille Lacs absolutely covered with this little suckers.

Caked to the bottom of the boat so bad that they cannot even get them up on plane.

In many cases there is nothing we can do about them once they have been established as widely as they have. Birds, etc transport the larvae just as much as inattentive boaters.

The water clarity was never poor on Mille Lacs, but now its like looking into a fishbowl. The fish are far more spooky now even in deep water.

I think there was talk that zeebs in Winni caused the die off of a ton of migrating waterfowl as well a year or so ago. As the water cools I think they dump some bacteria into the water which ultimately killed the feeding waterfowl, mostly Scaup.

[Ballyhoo]

The Bluebill issue has been around for several years. I read that about 5 years ago that researchers were starting to believe that was part of the cause for the downfall in scaup population. The ducks eat the mussels that are full of toxins and die. It wasn't just Winnie that was causing it.

[CaptainMusky]

The Bluebill issue has been around for several years. I read that about 5 years ago that researchers were starting to believe that was part of the cause for the downfall in scaup population. The ducks eat the mussels that are full of toxins and die. It wasn't just Winnie that was causing it.

Yeah, I know, they had a big one on Lake Erie or something too. Just using it as reference. I hadnt heard of it occurring in any other lake in MN besides Winni though, but I am sure it happened.

[fivebucks]

The bluebill die off on Winnie was due to snails that carry trematodes.

[magnum mike]

Specifically faucet snails. The shallow sand flats on the west shore of Winnie are ideal habitat for these little buggers. The diving ducks eat the snails. The snail is an intermediate host for the trematode. The parasite then enters the internal organs of the duck and turns them into purple jelly in just over 24 hours. It is a horrible thing to witness and I've been seeing it for the last 4 years.

[Ballyhoo]

That's interesting, I did not know about the snails and parasites. All I know is that the darn ducks are disappearing. Long gone are the big rafts of bluebills you used to see circling Garden Island in the fall.

[tacklejunkie]

I haved wondered what will happen when the y do make it to LOTW. I don't think they will ever clear the darkness of the water, but I wonder if they will filter out all of the phosferous in the lake that creats those big algea blooms in the late summer and fall.

I can't see them clearing LOTW, either. LOTW is pretty dark. They are in the St Louis River near Duluth and that's still stained water. In Pike Lake near Duluth, which was fairly clear to begin with before the zeebs, I don't see that big of a difference in clarity, either

[CaptainMusky]

The bluebill die off on Winnie was due to snails that carry trematodes.

Ah, thats right now I remember the story. Some dumb reason I was thinking it was the zeebs. My bad. I dont want to blame them for something they didnt do. :-)