More zebra mussels found in Clear Lake: Parks Canada

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Peggy

More zebra mussels have been found in Clear Lake at Riding Mountain National Park, Parks Canada says.

Parks staff found what they described as “multiple living juvenile zebra mussels” in Riding Mountain’s largest and most popular lake on Sept. 19 and 20, the federal agency said Tuesday in a bulletin.

Mollusc experts with Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Manitoba’s aquatic invasive species program confirmed the findings, the bulletin states.

Zebra mussels were first found in the lake in November 2023. Another mussel was found in June 2024.

In July and August, Parks Canada attempted to isolate existing mussels to the Boat Cove area of Clear Lake, west of Wasagaming, but an underwater containment curtain failed two days after it was installed.

Parks Canada said it is still considering options for eradicating the invasive species.

Zebra mussels have been eradicated successfully with the use of potash in a handful of small bodies of water on this continent, according to Invasive Mussel Collaborative, an organization made of U.S. states, Canadian provinces, Indigenous nations and other public bodies.

Those small bodies of water include a quarry in Virginia in 2006 and several harbours in a small lake southwest of Minneapolis in 2014, the Invasive Mussel Collaborative states on its website.