Clarissa Hoffman and Kristen Elton of the New Brunswick Invasive Species Council aren’t about to let something smaller than a pistachio ruin a treasured ecosystem. They’re working to stop the spread of zebra mussels in the Saint John River watershed.
NBISC taking action a year after zebra mussels were discovered in the watershed
Rebekah Houter · CBC News
· Posted: Jul 08, 2024 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
Zebra mussels, shown here on the left, have a lifespan of 2-5 years, with a single female zebra mussel laying up to a million larvae a year. They compete with native mussels, show here on the right, for food and will attach themselves to native mussels to suffocate them. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Clarissa Hoffman and Kristen Elton of the New Brunswick Invasive Species Council aren’t about to let something smaller than a pistachio ruin a treasured ecosystem.
They’re working to stop the spread of the prolific zebra mussel in the watershed of the Saint John River, also known as Wolastoq.
Zebra mussels were first detected in New Brunswick in the summer of 2023, a year after they were found in Quebec’s Lac Témiscouata.
Elton, program director for the council, said zebra mussels are considered “ecosystem engineers.”
“Not only are they taking food and resources out of the water, they’re actually changing the physical characteristics and the biochemistry,” she said.
This story was brought to Nouzie by RSS. The original post can be found on https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/invasive-species-zebra-mussel-new-brunswick-st-john-river-1.7232684?cmp=rss
