Public Awareness and Education
Zebra mussels can now be found washed up along beaches where the razor-like shells can cut bare feet.
Zebra mussels are well-suited as aquatic invaders. Once introduced into a new water body, their population growth can be explosive. Several factors have been offered to explain their rapid population increases, including life history traits of high growth rate, high fecundity, and tolerance of a range of environmental conditions. The alarmingly fast dispersal of this exotic species throughout much of the Great Lakes region, the northeastern United States, and the Mississippi drainage system has made it clear that although we are powerless to eliminate zebra mussels, we are capable of slowing their spread through public awareness programs, education, and cooperative compliance.
Adult zebra mussels can even be larger than this penny, but newly settled juveniles can appear as grains of sand and thus can be difficult to detect.
The zebra mussel, though small in size, has become the most troublesome freshwater biofouling organism in North America. Once a single mussel is in place, others settle on or around it. The colonization increases until a pipe or an opening is partially or completely blocked or equipment is fouled to the point of being unusable. Even after mussels are killed by a control technique, the shells and decaying tissues may remain behind, causing additional problems. Thus, killing the mussels may be only part of the solution, with their removal and disposal being an additional complication. Since the introduction of the species in the mid-1980s, the zebra mussel has created an estimated expense of hundreds of millions of dollars (O'Neill 1996, 1997). When the zebra mussel invades an area, fouling begins and can result in an economic impact. Once a water body is infested with a zebra mussel population, there is no eliminating it. Prevention is the best weapon against initial infestation.
What can be done to increase public awareness?
- Awareness of an issue must be established before education can take place. A survey of general knowledge may be of some assistance to ascertain and determine the current level of public awareness in a given area. Surveys can be adapted to any setting, and the results may be published in local organization's news bulletins, sent house-to-house as newsletters, posted on bulletin boards, published in the local papers, and distributed at subject-relevant locations.
- For newsletter purposes, the results of a locally conducted survey could act as a great lead-in to an explanation of the threat of potential infestation, as well as a description of the effects in various areas where infestation has already occurred. Bringing up the issue of cost can be beneficial since most readers will be sensitive to monetary issues.
- In the conclusion of the newsletter, offer organized action. Suggest several ways that concerned citizens are able to help slow the spread on an individual scale. Suggest several ways that others may assist or become active in this cause by distributing newsletters, etc.
- Suggest the formation of a committee or a public action group that is knowledgeable about the zebra mussel, able to answer questions, calculate the risk of infestation, and monitor local bodies of water. Hold a community meeting with a question-and-answer session to enlist the assistance of interested individuals and publicize the meeting in the local papers, on bulletin boards, and by word of mouth.
- Hold localized fund-raisers to establish and maintain the funds necessary to monitor, purchase monitoring equipment, host informative meetings, attend seminars on zebra mussel control, and establish control measures. Fund raisers in themselves will increase public awareness.
- Visit schools and talk to individual teachers to see if they may be interested in a classroom visit or a fieldtrip. Suggest a class project with emphasis on the environmental effects of invasive species. Review the Impacts and print copies of selected materials to use as props.
- Create flyers or informational handouts or contact the state's local department of natural resources or a similar organization for these materials. Make these materials available to lake associations, recreational boaters, fishermen, and local beaches and marinas.
Slowing the Spread of the Zebra Mussel Contents