No true boater needs another excuse to spend more time out on the water, but here`s one anyway: The more you use your boat, the less likely you are to play host to the dreaded zebra mussel.
Protecting a boat from dreissena polymorpha, the scientific name for the zebra mussel, is a little more complicated than casting off and bobbing up and down the shore on a summer weekend. But, according to Illinois experts and marina operators on other Great Lakes, it need not take away from the pleasure of recreational boating.
”When they came in here three years ago, they were supposed to overtake everything,” said Dick Plantz of Anchor Pointe Marina in Toledo. ”They were supposed to be a thousand times worse than they are. They are out in the lake, no doubt about it. But they are not a problem like they were supposed to be.”
Dale Kindale of Channel Park Marina in Cleveland said in the last two years, he has seen perhaps 20 boats with heavy accumulations of mussels, and those were all boats that were not used often.
There`s a good reason for the fact that little-used boats tend to have more zebra-mussel problems, but first a few words about why boat-owners should pay attention to these seemingly innocuous, thumbnail-size creatures.
What makes zebra mussels such a threat to water users of all kinds, from nuclear power plants to weekend sailors, is their habit of attaching themselves with a death-grip to almost any smooth underwater surface.
For factories, water-treatment plants and power stations, colonies of zebra mussels can clog intake pipes and foul internal machinery.
For boaters, clusters of mussels can reduce a boat`s speed and efficiency by accumulating on hulls, rudders and trim tabs. Worse, they can clog intakes for water-cooled engines, and that will lead to malfunctions and even explosions if left uncorrected.
Zebra mussels, which are native to Russia, probably emigrated to America in a cargo ship that dumped its ballast water in the Great Lakes. Since they were first discovered in 1988 in Lake St. Clair, between Lakes Huron and Erie, they have spread throughout the Great Lakes and have been found in the Mississippi, Ohio and Hudson Rivers. After an initial appearance in southern Lake Michigan in 1990, these striped bivalves established colonies in marinas and harbors up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline last year.
Taking preventive measures against the mollusks is something that boaters in the Chicago area will have to do this year and for the foreseeable future. This year`s boating season probably will see an exponential explosion of the prolific zebra mussel. And there is no known way of getting rid of all of them. Learn to live with them, marine biologists say. They`re here to stay.
”We saw a huge settlement of juveniles in the southern part of the lake late last year,” said Ellen Marsden, who tracks the zebra-mussel infestation in Lake Michigan for the Illinois Natural History Survey. ”Those little guys are going to be getting bigger this year and reproducing.”
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That`s a daunting prospect because a single female zebra mussel can produce 40,000 eggs a year and perhaps even more, according to recent research by Marsden.
On the theory that prevention is the best cure, boat-owners should give their craft a fresh coat of bottom paint or anti-fouling surface coating, authorities say. Cover all surfaces that are usually below the water line, and remove screens that cover through-the-hull intakes and apply the coating or paint as far up the intakes as possible.
The two most common types of anti-fouling coatings use copper or tributyl tin (TBT) as active ingredients. Though both are said to be effective, a couple of words of caution are in order about each.
Copper-based paints cannot be used on aluminum-hulled boats because the copper reacts with the aluminum and causes corrosion.
That leaves TBT, but it is restricted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because it has been found to interfere with the reproductive systems of mollusks, including species native to the Great Lakes.
Pesticide scientist Margaret Jones of the EPA office in Chicago said special training is necessary before a boater or a commercial operation can be given a license to handle TBT. Michigan has gone a step further and banned TBT.
Other paints that use epoxy and silicon are being tested, Marsden said, and Ferro Corp. of Cleveland makes a polyester coating called CopperClad that contains fine particles of copper. After covering a surface with the coating, a boater sands it to expose the copper particles.
Once a boat is in the water, there are steps to take to make sure it remains mussel-less. Run your hand along the hull under the water level occasionally and feel for a grainy texture. Those grains could be veligers, the infant form of zebra mussels. If caught early, they should come off with a good scrubbing. Once the mussels get large enough to be easily visible-a quarter inch or so-they become much tougher to remove by hand.
Marsden advises those with outboard motors on their boats to lift the outboards out of the water when the boat is not in use. That will prevent mussels from settling on propellers and drive shafts.
A well-used boat tends to be mussel-free because of speed and heat. Zebra mussels are crafty, but even they can`t settle on something that`s moving. And, if veligers settle on a boat during the week, a good run on the weekend may be enough to dislodge them.
Zebra mussels also are hardy, but, as natives of a country known for vicious winters, they can`t stand much heat. As a boat`s engine warms up and transfers the heat to the cooling water around it, any mussels in that water will be killed. That protects outdrives from infestations.
So, even if you do not take your boat out every weekend, it is a good idea to run the engine once a week for 15 or 30 minutes to get it up to operating temperature. That advice applies to the trolling engines in sailboats, too.
If you haven`t used your boat in a while, keep an eye on the engine temperature gauge. If the engine runs hot, it may be a sign of a mussel infestation.
The Illinois Department of Conservation has been particularly concerned about boaters who transport their craft from lake to lake because they could introduce Lake Michigan zebra mussels to an inland lake.
To prevent that, inspect your boat for mussels when you pull it out of Lake Michigan. Clean the boat, motor, trailer and other equipment that has come in contact with Lake Michigan water. Drain bilges and bait buckets.
”Don`t carry any water from one lake to another,” said Marsden.
The Conservation Department suggests flushing a boat with hot salt water- a half cup of salt per gallon of hot water-followed by fresh water to prevent corrosion. Marsden said that if this is done near a lake, the salt water will be diluted safely by lake water and will not harm aquatic life.
Finally, don`t assume that you are safe if you plan to keep your boat out of the water for a while. Zebra mussels can seal themselves and survive for several days out of the water. Big specimens have been known to live as long as two weeks that way.
Having said all of that, Marsden added: ”The key here is don`t overreact to it. There`s all of these potential problems, but in Lake Erie, they never materialized. It`s an awareness issue. Keep an eye out for mussels. Keep in touch with the marina. Talk to other boaters.”
A survey of more than a dozen marinas on Lake Erie, the hardest hit of the Great Lakes, revealed that zebra mussels have not devastated recreational boating. Take the proper precautions, they say, then enjoy yourself. But do take precautions.
”People just have to change their ways,” said Joe Schlosser of State Line Marina in Erie, Mich. ”If you don`t, you could be looking for trouble.”