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Zebra mussels found within Skiatook Lake

 
BY SHEILA STOGSDILL | Published: April 23, 2010    Comment on this article Leave a comment

SKIATOOK — The bottom of Skiatook Lake is infested with zebra mussels, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Ross Adkins said Thursday.

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WHAT TO DO
Slow the spread

Taking some simple boating precautions can help slow the spread of the zebra mussel to other lakes, according to a press release from the Army Corps of Engineers.


• Drain the bilge, live wells, and bait buckets.


• Inspect the boat and trailer. Zebra mussels may feel like grit — scrape them off, but do not return them to the water.


• Store the boat and trailer out of the water for a week before entering another body of water.


• If the boat will be put into another body of water within a week, wash boat, accessories, the bilge, live well, pumping system, and bait buckets with high pressure.


• A 10 percent solution of household chlorine bleach and water, or a hot saltwater solution, can be used to wash the boat. Do not wash the boat at ramps where the solutions could drain into the lake.

Initially the invasive species was believed only in a couple of spots in Skiatook Lake, but divers "found lots of them” at the bottom, Adkins said.

Zebra mussels also were found recently in Fort Gibson Lake, he said.

The mussels were first discovered in Oklahoma in 1993 in the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

Now they’ve been documented in Texoma, Kaw, Keystone, Eufaula, Oologah, Skiatook and Fort Gibson and Grand lakes.

They entered the United States through the Great Lakes.

The thumbnail-size creatures have a zebra-like striped pattern.

The mussels have caused great economic impact across the country, according to the state Department of Wildlife.

They damage boat engines, threaten native fish and wildlife by consuming available food and smothering native mussels, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars by clogging power plant and public water intakes and pipe.

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Related Topics: Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, Aquatic Animals



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