Quagga mussel program ramping up
16 ramp monitors will be on the lookout around Clear Lake
The Lake County quagga mussel prevention program is cranking it up again as the spring and summer months approach. The program has been going on throughout the winter, but with a much smaller staff of boat monitors at the public boat ramps.
The program will use approximately 16 ramp monitors this summer along with a decontamination station. The goal of the program is to make sure all boats being launched into Clear Lake and other waters within the county are screened and issued a Lake County mussel inspection sticker. All of the primary public boat ramps around Clear Lake are monitored.
Other lakes in the county also require a sticker. That list includes Lake Pillsbury, Indian Valley Reservoir and Blue Lakes.
The county issued roughly 16,000 stickers a year ago. Since the program began in 2009, the county has screened and issued stickers for more than 100,000 boats.
Lake County passed an ordinance in 2009 requiring all motorized boats to be inspected and issued a sticker. Kayaks, canoes and non-motorized cartop boats aren’t required to have a sticker. Out-of-county boaters require a new sticker monthly while county residents must get a new sticker once a year. The stickers cost $20. There is a fine of up to $1,000 if found out on the lake in a boat without a sticker.
When the program originally started there was a lot of resistance from boaters. However, the complaints have dropped to nearly zero the last couple of years and just about all the boaters are cooperating.
According to biologists, Clear Lake is an ideal breeding ground for the mussels because the lake
is rich in nutrients and calcium, which the mussels require. There have been no quagga mussels found in Clear Lake to date although they have been found it lakes in Southern California. This is pretty amazing simply because Clear Lake is the largest natural lake completely contained within California’s boarders and thousands of boaters visit here each year.
Quagga mussels are not native to California or even the United States. The mussels are native to Russia and Eastern Europe. The quagga mussel got its name after an extinct
species of African zebra. It has an average lifespan of three to five years. A filter feeder, the quagga mussel pulls water into its shell cavity where plankton is removed. Each adult mussel is capable of filtering one or more quarts of water a day. The mussel is a prolific breeder and each female is capable of producing up to a million eggs per year. The larva is called a veliger. In their native land they have natural predators, including ducks and various species of fish. In America, the mussels have no natural predators.
The bad news is a body of water infested with mussels has never had them successfully eradicated. If the quagga mussels ever became established
in Clear Lake the effects would be devastating. There are 17 water companies drawing water from the lake and these companies would have to be constantly cleaning their screens, which would cost them thousands of dollars, and that cost would ultimately be passed on to consumers. Lakeside residents wouldn’t be able to moor boats at their docks because the mussels would travel to the water pumps on their motors and clog the engines. The mussels also would impact the fishery since they feed on the same plankton fish require when they are minnows.
If a boat fails to pass the inspection it must be decontaminated before being allowed on the water. The county will do the decontamination
free of charge.
It’s amazing the mussels haven’t found there way into more lakes in Northern California. They are spreading throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, but for some reason they haven’t reached our lakes in the northern part of the state.
Lake County is actually far ahead of most other counties with its mussel prevention program. No other county in the northern part of the state has as strict an inspection program as Lake County. Hopefully the quagga mussel will never find its way into the waters of Clear Lake. They would forever change the character of one of the oldest lakes in the world.