Dec 9, 2008 6:48 pm US/Eastern
More Invasive Mussels Found In Susquehanna River
DARLINGTON, Md. (WJZ) ―
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Biologists were hoping they wouldn't see another one but now they have, creating an almost dead-on certainty that zebra mussels are in Maryland and are likely here to stay.
AP
Biologists were hoping they wouldn't see another one but now they have, creating an almost dead-on certainty that zebra mussels are in Maryland and are likely here to stay.
As
Alex DeMetrick reports, that could end up costing Maryland a lot of money.
Zebra mussels do two things very well: reproduce and stick like glue to anything solid. Native to Europe, they arrived in the Great Lakes in the ballast water of ships and have spread to 20 states since the 1980s.
Last month, one was found for the first time in Maryland in an intake pipe at Conowingo Dam. This week, a second was found stuck to the back of a boat in a Harford County marina.
"If they follow the mussel they've followed elsewhere, they'll show up in even larger numbers," said DNR biologist Jonathan MacKnight.
They will grow from what fits in the palm of the hand to a real handful of trouble.
"They can clog the intake pipes for industry or other uses and in fact it can be very expensive to deal with these creatures if they get into a water supply," MacKnight said.
That means people who move their boats from one waterway to another are being targeted for monitoring.
Zebra mussels do not reproduce during the winter, so next spring will determine their numbers in the Conowingo Reservoir.
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