Zebra Mussels in Grand Lake + 2 other reservoirs in Colorado

http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...0581&catid=346

What is the harm that these cause? They clarify the water, correct? Is
it ONLY the dam turbines, etc. or is there something more insidious?

Your pal,

TBone

Halfordian Golfer wrote:
http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...0581&catid=346

What is the harm that these cause? They clarify the water, correct? Is
it ONLY the dam turbines, etc. or is there something more insidious?

The crux of the problem is that the zebra mussel has no
natural predators in the Great Lakes, that is to say nothing
can eat the damn things.

What you call "clarify" is what biologists call removing all
the nutrients from the very bottom of the food chain. That
wouldn't be a problem if something ate the zebra mussel and
then was itself eaten by something which was eaten by something
else and so on and so on up the chain.

HTH

--
Ken Fortenberry

On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:30:17 -0500, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

Halfordian Golfer wrote:
http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...0581&catid=346

What is the harm that these cause? They clarify the water, correct? Is
it ONLY the dam turbines, etc. or is there something more insidious?

The crux of the problem is that the zebra mussel has no
natural predators in the Great Lakes, that is to say nothing
can eat the damn things.

What you call "clarify" is what biologists call removing all
the nutrients from the very bottom of the food chain. That
wouldn't be a problem if something ate the zebra mussel and
then was itself eaten by something which was eaten by something
else and so on and so on up the chain.

HTH

I've always presumed invading Zebra Mussels were A Bad Thing, at least due to
their crowding out native species. Fouling water intakes and turbines would be
further down my list of negative impacts.

But, as for predators, are there no crawfish in the Great Lakes? Apparently,
crawfish love them and a single crawfish will consume literally hundreds of
the juvenile form per day...

/daytripper

On Sep 27, 1:30*pm, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:
Halfordian Golfer wrote:
http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...0581&catid=346

What is the harm that these cause? They clarify the water, correct? Is
it ONLY the dam turbines, etc. or is there something more insidious?

The crux of the problem is that the zebra mussel has no
natural predators in the Great Lakes, that is to say nothing
can eat the damn things.

What you call "clarify" is what biologists call removing all
the nutrients from the very bottom of the food chain. That
wouldn't be a problem if something ate the zebra mussel and
then was itself eaten by something which was eaten by something
else and so on and so on up the chain.

HTH

--
Ken Fortenberry

Did you see the comment from the poster on 9 News that suggested they
created an exceptional smallmouth fishery in the great lakes...

TBone

On Sep 27, 9:00*pm, Halfordian Golfer wrote:
On Sep 27, 1:30*pm, Ken Fortenberry



wrote:
Halfordian Golfer wrote:
http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...0581&catid=346

What is the harm that these cause? They clarify the water, correct? Is
it ONLY the dam turbines, etc. or is there something more insidious?

The crux of the problem is that the zebra mussel has no
natural predators in the Great Lakes, that is to say nothing
can eat the damn things.

What you call "clarify" is what biologists call removing all
the nutrients from the very bottom of the food chain. That
wouldn't be a problem if something ate the zebra mussel and
then was itself eaten by something which was eaten by something
else and so on and so on up the chain.

HTH

--
Ken Fortenberry

Did you see the comment from the poster on 9 News that suggested they
created an exceptional smallmouth fishery in the great lakes...

TBone

Uh...Zebra mussels that is, not the poster!

T