Dogs Take On Aquatic Menace

Quagga Mussels                    UCR   

Quagga and zebra mussels are small invasive fresh-water mussels originally found in the Ukraine and Russia, including both the Black and Caspian Seas. The two species are fast breeders who quickly crowd out native mussels. They very small and attach to both hard and soft surfaces. These two characteristics result in build-ups of both species on intake/outlet pipes, boat docks, buoys, boat hulls and beaches.

These two species first appeared in the US in the late 1980s in the Great Lakes having travelled as in commercial ship ballast water. They may be tiny, but there are incredible prolific and mitigating the damage they cause is costly.

Zebra and quagga mussel invasions create an immense financial burden because of the need to continuously and actively manage these pests. It has been estimated that it costs over $500 million (US) per year to manage mussels at power plants, water systems, and industrial complexes, and on boats and docks in the Great Lakes. In addition to the property damage these mussels cause, they can also have a profound impact on native species and humans.

The encrusting of lake and river bottoms can displace native aquatic arthropods that need soft sediments for burrowing. In the Great Lakes this had lead to the collapse of amphipod populations that fish rely on for food and the health of fish populations has been severely affected.

These mussels have been associated with avian botulism outbreaks in the Great Lakes which have caused the mortality of tens of thousands of birds. Because of their filter feeding habit, it has been estimated that these mussels can bioaccumlate organic pollutants in their tissues by as much as 300,000 times when compared to concentrations in the water in which they are living. Consequently, these pollutants can biomagnify as they are passed up the food chain when contaminated mussels are eaten by predators (e.g., fish and crayfish), who in turn are eaten by other organisms (e.g., recreational fishermen who eat contaminated fish.)

The quagga and zebra mussel invasion has spread from the Great Lakes, primarily through the movement of recreational watercraft. Both species can live for several days outside of water. They showed up as far away as Nevada and California in the mid-2000s. In Wyoming and Montana state and federal fish and game officials have implemented a multi-part strategy to keep these invasive mussels out of lakes and streams. Part of the strategy is education, but an additional important component are Tobais and Jax – mussel sniffing dogs.

                                                             WDC

Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks are using specially trained dogs to check boats for aquatic invasive species. In partnership with Working Dogs for Conservation, the parks will put dogs Tobias and Jax to work sniffing out zebra and quagga mussels and participating in public events.

The parks, as well as the state of Wyoming, seek to keep them from being inadvertently introduced to lakes, creeks and rivers and have extensive programs, now including Tobias and Jax, to keep area waters uninfested.

These high energy dogs are sent to work checking watercraft and trailers for any scent evidence of the invading mussels. In the days around the 4th of July, state inspector checked 850 boats, 129 of which came from areas with known infestations. The dogs make finding even trace evidence of these invasive mussels easier and quicker than other forms of scrutiny.

Both Tobias and Jax are from Working Dogs for Conservation (WDC).  Many of WDCs dogs are rescue pups.  Tobias was found wandering the streets and Jax wasn't cut out for the military.   Check out Tobias here and Jax here.  Here’s a link to the New York Times who reported on a little clean-up job Tobias did in California a couple of years ago.