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1993 Zebra Mussel Distribution Update
ZEBRA MUSSEL DISTRIBUTION UPDATEAugust 1993
Since
our initial report on the distribution of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha)
in August, 1992, we have continued to receive reports of their rapid spread through
the country's waterways. Many of the new populations were found during incidental
activities such as facility inspections by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Others
discoveries come from specific monitoring and detection efforts. Contributors
include individuals from nearly all sectors, public and private. This and future
updates are intended as a brief description of new zebra mussels reports organized
by major hydrologic region. You can obtain more specific information regarding
zebra mussels as well as other nonindigenous aquatic nuisance species by contacting
us by email.
In the past year zebra mussels
have spread to locations that span the entire length of the Upper Mississippi
River. They have been reported from every lock and dam on the upper Mississippi
River from St. Paul to Dubuque, Iowa. The Illinois River is the only secondary
river within this region containing known populations. In the lower Mississippi River, they are know known from
Greenville and Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Lettsworth, St. Francisville, New Orleans,
and Berwick, Louisiana. The numbers of mussels at these locations in the lower
Mississippi were not large, but possibly enough to establish populations in the
river. During the later part
of 1992 more zebra mussel were found in the Arkansas River, this time at Lock
and Dams 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Farther upriver on the Arkansas, mussels were found
at Lock and Dams 15 and 16 near Cowlington and Gore, Oklahoma, respectively.
To the east, zebra mussels were sighted in numerous
places along the Ohio River as far up as Pike Island Lock and Dam, just above
Wheeling, West Virginia. In West Virginia, three lock and dams on the Kanawha
River were found to have zebra mussels present. The
Hudson River in New York now has zebra mussels from Albany to as far south as
West Haverstraw (Strayer et al. 1992). In upstate New York zebra mussels populate
the St. Lawrence River from Kingston down to the city of Quebec, Canada (Wormington
et al. 1993). Lake Champlain, on the New York and Vermont border, has a population
reported from the southern end of the lake near Benson, Vermont. There have been new sightings along the shores of northwest Michigan
in the Grand Traverse Bay area. Other new sightings came from U.S. Coast Guard
inspection of navigational buoys as they were being decommissioned for the winter
in Lake Superior. During the summer
of 1993 zebra mussels were discovered above Chattanooga in the Tennessee River.
They have also now been found at Chickamauga, Watts Bar, and Lenoir City, Tennessee.
In the Cumberland River, zebra mussels are reported from the mouth to as far upriver
as Nashville. Nearly all of the recent
rapid spread by zebra mussels have been in navigable waters. In April of 1992,
a barge was dry-docked for repairs at Hartford, Illinois where over 1000 zebra
mussel were attached to the hull (Keevin et al. 1992). The barge's log book showed
that it had traveled 12,777 miles up and down the Mississippi River from Minnesota
to Louisiana before dry-docking. This documented long-distance transportation
of live mussels plus the known dispersal pattern give credibility to the assumption
that barge traffic has been the primary cause of dispersal in navigable waters.
- [1]
- Keevin, T., R. Yarbrough,
and A. Miller. 1992. Inadvertent transport of live zebra mussels on barges - experiences
in the St. Louis District, Spring 1992. Zebra Mussel Research Technical Notes
ZMR-1-07, November 1992, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station.
4p.
- [2]
- Strayer, D., J. Powell, B. Walton, and E. Mellina. 1993. Spread
of zebra mussels in the Hudson River estuary in 1992. Dreissena polymorpha Information
Review 4(2):5.
- [3]
- Wormington, A., C.A. Timmins, and R.M. Dermott. 1993.
Distribution of zebra mussels on Canadian navigation buoys on the Great Lakes
and upper St. Lawrence River, December 1992. Canadian Manuscript Report of Fisheries
and Aquatic Sciences No. 2186. Fisheries and Oceans, Burlington, Ontario. 34 p.
This is by no
means all the information on confirmed zebra mussel sightings, but we feel we
have received accurate information through a network of contacts to sufficiently
represent the distribution. We welcome your input
with information about new sightings.
For further information contact: Amy Benson U.S.
Geological Survey- Center for Aquatic Resource Studies
7920
NW 71st Street Gainesville, FL 32653Comm.:
352-264-3477 Fax: 352-378-4956
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