Zebra Mussels In The Great Lakes

According to the Department of Natural Resources of Minnesota, Dreissena Polymorpha or formally known as zebra mussels is one of the highest problems in Minnesota lakes and rivers, affecting twenty-eight states and counting in the United States and is one of the highest leading problems in waters. Discovered in 1988 in the Great Lakes, they are said to be native to Eastern Europe, and Western Russia, the theory is that they were brought over from ships that were bringing over products to the United States. Zebra Mussels were first discovered in 1988 in the Great Lakes (invasive mussels). They have covered nearly all of Lake Erie in a matter of years, they were also found in the Mississippi River in the 1990s, once they are found in a body …show more content…
People have also found them stuck to their boat motors or their hulls, which can affect the efficiency and weight of your boat causing it to be slower and may cause your motor to overheat(invasive mussels). Some people get mistaken because the mussels can improve the water clarity because when they are on the bottom of lakes they eat a lot of the bacteria that is located in the water column which leads to better water clarity, but there's a catch. The better the water clarity the worse the weeds will grow from all the sunlight they are getting cause the water is clear(invasive mussels). They can also destroy native species like small bugs that fish feed off of or if fish die from the mussels sticking to them and a duck eats the dead fish, the mussels can effect the inside of the duck leading to its death(zebra mussels). “Shallow water species like bass and panfish have actually benefitted, zebra mussels have allowed the littoral zone of the lake to become more fertile” . But species that feed on bottom say like sturgeon which is a bottom feeder, all of its food comes from the bottom, but if zebra mussels are covering and eating all of their food source, the sturgeon will