Brandon Twp.- Bald Eagle Lake has a new and uninvited visitor.
‘The reports are very sporadic but I found zebra mussels on my old wood dock and a neighbor discovered them attached to his boat hoist,? said Rob Rohde, a Bald Eagle Lake resident for the past 30 years and vice president of the Lake Association.
‘I’ve been checking for signs of the zebra mussels this spring, but nothing so far.?
The invasive mussels feed primarily on algae. They filter water as they eat and are blamed for enhancing weed growth because the clearer water allows more sunlight for the weed to flourish. The mollusks are characterized by distinctive dark stripes and they multiply with amazing speed.They were discovered in Lake St. Clair in 1988 and have spread to all five Great Lakes.
Rohde says that for past several years, Bald Eagle Lake residents have been reminded to rinse their boats off with fresh water or leave the trailer and boat out of the water for at least a week if they come from another lake. Methods used to avoid investation of the mussels.
Bald Eagle Lake covers about 125 acres and is located west of M-15 just south of Glass Road. About 250 homes are on shores of the lake.
Lake resident Beatrice Wilson, discovered the mollusk on the bottom of their row boat last fall.
‘We scraped them off the boat bottom into a bucket. The bottom of the boat was not all covered but perhaps 50 mussels were stuck on the boat.?
The findings at Bald Eagle Lake were reported to the National Sea Grant College Program, a network of 30 university-based programs in coastal states across the country. The program promotes greater knowledge of the Great Lakes through education, research and outreach.
The NSGC recorded the zebra mussel findings from Bald Eagle Lake in the annual listing of infested waters throughout Michigan. Carol Swinehart, NSGC communications manager says about 225 to 230 Michigan lakes where reported as of late February. About 50 lakes in Oakland County have been infested according to the NSGC report.
Swinehart noted that although Bald Eagle Lake has no public launch site, a common spot for boats to spread zebra mussels, the inflitration can still occured.
‘Due to the number of lakes in Oakland County there’s a great deal of waterfowl. There’s a chance that veliger, the larva form of the zebra mussels not detectable to the naked eye, could be transported via geese or other fowl. But it’s more likely it came from other boats moved from one lake to another.?
‘We are dependant on citizens reporting the zebra mussels, we just don’t have enough staff to go and look for them.. The number of reports have been lower recently in Oakland County’maybe that people just don’t report when they find zebra mussels anymore or just don’t look.?
‘The more boaters we educate the greater the chances for slowing the spread. It’s hard to say if the real infestation has slowed. Once they are in the lake there’s not much you can do, we’ve yet to come up with a permit solution.?
Swinehart said that in the spring the mussels are free-floating and in the microscopic larval form. By the first of June they start appearing on docks and under boats.
Roger Eberhardt, enviormental quality specialist in the Office of the Great Lakes, with Department of Enviromental Quality says that overwhelmingly the most common way for zebra mussels to pass into a lake are boats or fishing equipment.
‘The zebra’s just can’t stand drying very much so chances are they hook on in boat trailers, jet skis or in boat motor shafts,? said Eberhardt. ‘It takes just a little bit of water inside to keep the mussels alive.?
‘Residents can scrap them off and there are a few products on the horizion to treat water for the mussels but nothing available yet to put a stop to the spread.