Zebra mussels found in lake
Trouble-making zebra mussels have arrived in Utah. But not where they were expected to show up.
Electric Lake is Utah’s first body of water where the damaging, nonnative mussels have been confirmed, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.
The officials said they were surprised the fast-spreading mussels appeared there first because it’s a high-elevation lake with relatively few boaters. It is boaters who sometimes unknowingly transport the mussels from lake to lake on their crafts.
Most expected the mussels to show up first at Lake Powell.
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The mussels "showed up in one of the least-expected places," said Larry Dalton, aquatic invasive species coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "That’s how bewildering this little devil is."
Zebra mussels and their cousins, quagga mussels, were inadvertently introduced into the Great Lakes about 20 years ago. They reproduce and spread rapidly, threatening food sources for fish and clogging machinery and water pipes.
