MUNCIE — Biologist Laura Bowley last month collected a zebra mussel, an invasive species notorious for colonizing hard surfaces — attached to a monitoring device that had been submerged in Prairie Creek Reservoir.
While one fingernail-sized zebra mussel won't wreak havoc on the lake, its presence could lead to an infestation causing a decline in the population of sport fish like walleye and smallmouth bass, sharp-edged shells washing onto the beach, boat engines overheating and an increase in aquatic vegetation.
The Muncie Sanitary District's Bureau of Water Quality has been sampling the reservoir for zebra mussels for years, but this is the first time one has been found.
Dozens of Indiana lakes already are infested with the invasive mollusk native to lakes and rivers in western Russia including the Caspian Sea, but this is the first time it has been identified in Prairie Creek. The reservoir also empties into White River, which thus far has remained clean of zebra mussels north of Indianapolis.
If they migrate into the White River, zebra mussels could attach to and smother some of the 13 species of native mussels found in Delaware County, says Bowley, a biologist at the bureau.
"My guess is, since we just found one, it's real early in the game, or real early as to where they are (in the reservoir)," she said. "Next year we could see a couple more or a whole bunch more."
A single female zebra mussel can release a million eggs over one spawning season, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The mussels produce a powerful glue that anchors them to turtle shells, other mussels, water intake structures, engine cooling systems on boats, piers, steel, concrete and navigational buoys, some of which have been sunk by the additional weight.