In Lake Erie, they found 10-inch thick layers of the mussel in rocky areas. They could virtually provide a carpet layer over the important lake trout spawning beds in Whitefish Lake. |
It is not at all far fetched to be concerned about zebra mussels in Montana. Zebra mussels are aquatic hitchhikers. They can survive long periods of time as larvae found in residual water in a boat, or as adults attached to the boat. Once they infest a system, there is no feasible alternative to stop their progress. |
They spend their entire adult life filter feeding the zooplankton and phytoplankton from the water. It was estimated that during their peak numbers in Lake Erie, they were filtering the entire lake every day. |