Officials waiting on DNA results of suspicious lake samples
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Flathead Lake soon could face its greatest enemy if scientists confirm the presence of invasive mussels in its waters. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced that four routine plankton samples taken in July from the northern end of Flathead Lake near Woods Bay contained microscopic larvae suspected to be exotic mussels.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks aquatic nuisance coordinator Eileen Ryce was expecting to have results of DNA testing on the suspicious samples last week, but as of Friday, she was still waiting on results from an out-of-state lab. Earlier lab tests had conflicting results, she said.
“There’s been some different interpretation of (the samples), so that’s why we’re going out for the DNA,” Ryce said. “We’re still investigating it.”
But even a DNA test isn’t foolproof when dealing with exotic mussels, said Caryn Miske, executive director of the Flathead Basin Commission.
“There are a lot of false positives and false negatives,” she said.
So even if the results come back negative for invasive mussels, Miske believes the lake will need to be treated as “suspect” for the next few years. While prevention efforts are ongoing to keep mussels out of the Flathead, she foresees a shift in emphasis to containment.
“If the lake is positive, what we can do is keep (the mussels) from spreading,” Miske said. “I think containment efforts can be successful.”
A team of United States Geological Survey divers was set to arrive for a search of the lake later this month, Ryce added. But their task won’t be easy.
“If they were to go down and find an adult mussel, then we’d be absolutely positive (that there are mussels in the lake),” Miske explained. “(But) it’s a really big lake, so it’s a little like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Meanwhile, the Flathead Basin Commission continues to ramp up the fight against aquatic invasives. At its Nov. 17 meeting, the Commission voted to ask the state legislature to pass a resolution strengthening laws associated with the fight against aquatic invasives. The proposed legislation would require “mandatory watercraft inspections for all watercraft that are traveling into Montana and all watercraft within Montana that are traveling from infected waterway to waterway.”
“I foresee changes (to the law) by next summer,” said Tom Bansak, a research scientist at the Yellow Bay Biological Station and a member of the FBC’s Aquatic Invasive Species Work Group.
When dealing with invasive species like mussels, prevention is paramount, Bansak added.
“It’s much more economically viable to invest on the front end,” he said.
Zebra and quagga mussels are two of the most-feared aquatic invasive species present in the United States, and unless they’re confirmed in the Flathead Lake samples, Montana is one of the few places left where the creatures haven’t spread. The mussels clog filters and water intake pipes and pumps, coat boat propellers and steal nutrients from native invertebrates, fish and wildlife. Both types of mussels reproduce rapidly and can wreak havoc on the ecosystem of infested waters.
According to the United States Geological Survey, zebra and quagga mussels were introduced to the United States in the late 1980s, when one commercial cargo ship traveling from the Black Sea (the native home of both mussel species) to the Great Lakes released larval zebra mussels during a ballast exchange. The tenacious creatures then quickly spread through connecting waterways via boat hulls and drifting while in the larval stage. In the Great Lakes Basin alone, the two types of non-native mussels have caused more than $5 billion in damage, the USGS estimates.
“We’re very concerned about this,” Bansak said. “(The Flathead Basin is) the headwaters of the Columbia (Basin). If (the mussels) travel downstream, we don’t have any way of stopping them.”
The FBC formed its AIS Work Group in April to find and implement ways to “minimize the harmful ecological, economic, and social impact of aquatic invasive species through education, prevention and management of introduction, population growth, and dispersal of such species into, within, and from the Flathead Basin,” according to a release from the group.
The work group finalized a strategy for combating aquatic invasives in September, but still is seeking funding to put the whole plan into action. The detailed plan is available for viewing at www.flatheadlakers.org.
