Iowa Great Lakes — With summer fishing and boating in full swing, The Department of Natural Resources has a reminder for you, especially if it’s been several years since you’ve fished from a boat. Some things have changed. Especially if
Iowa Great Lakes — With summer fishing and boating in full swing, The Department of Natural Resources has a reminder for you, especially if it’s been several years since you’ve fished from a boat. Some things have changed. Especially if you move your boat from lake to lake. We talked with Mike Hawkins, who is a fisheries biologist with the DNR. He says Zebra mussels are a threat to the lakes. He says Zebra mussels look like small, fingernail-sized clams. The D-shaped shells have alternating light and dark bands, and the inside of the shell is white. Zebra mussels grow up to two inches long, but most are less than one inch. They are the only freshwater mollusk that can attach to solid underwater surfaces using glue-like fibers called byssal threads.
He says the mussels are visible, but their young are not. And they are easily transported from lake to lake on boats.
And he says they can be pretty ecologically harmful.
In addition to comp