May 25 Program
Mike Hawkins - Department of Natural Resources.
Our program on May 25 was presented by Mike Hawkins of the DNR. Mike is a Fisheries Management Biologist in the Iowa Great Lakes Area.
Currently there are 760 lakes infested with Zebra Muscles. They were first discovered in 1980 in the United States . They "hitchhiked" over in bilge water from the St. Lawrence Seaway from the Caspian sea.
Zebra Mussels were first reported in the Iowa Great Lakes in 2012 in Lower Gar Lake and by 2014 had spread throughout all of the Iowa great lakes except far, Big Spirit and Center Lake. So far these two lakes are not yet infested.
Zebra Mussels clear up the water and also makes a significant change in ecology. Clearer water also means more pond weed of which the Iowa Great Lakes are currently experiencing.
Zebra mussels have a 5- 6 year lifespan however can die over the winter. There native mussels in the Iowa Great Lakes but Mike Hawkins doesn't expect them to survive with the infestation of the invasive species of Mussels.
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