By all measures the Lake County quagga mussel inspection program has been a huge success. Despite thousands of boats from throughout the country coming here for fishing and pleasure, not a single quagga has been found in Clear Lake or any other body of water in the county. The program started in 2009 and more than a 100,000 quagga mussel stickers have been issued since then to both resident and non-resident boaters.
The Lake County quagga mussel prevention program is starting up again as the spring and summer months approach. Actually, the program has been going on throughout the winter but with a smaller staff of boat monitors at the public boat ramps. According to Angela De Palma-Dow, Lake County invasive species coordinator, the goal of the program is to make sure all boats being launched in Clear Lake and other waters within the county be screened and issued a Lake County mussel inspection sticker. She said the county issued more than 18,000 stickers in 2021 alone.
The county passed an ordinance in 2009 requiring all motorized boats be screened or inspected and have a sticker. Kayaks, canoes and non-motorized cartop boats aren’t required to have a sticker. Kayaks powered by an electric motor must have a sticker.
Out-of-county boaters are required to have a monthly sticker while Lake County residents must obtain an annual sticker. The stickers cost $20. There is a fine of up to a $1,000 if cited and found guilty of being out on the lake in a boat without a sticker.
When the program originally started there was a lot of resistance from boaters when they were told their boats must be screened and issued a sticker. Complaints dropped to nearly zero during this past year and just about all the boaters are cooperating.
According to biologists, Clear Lake offers ideal conditions for mussels to survive and reproduce. The lake is rich in nutrients and calcium, which the mussels require.
Quagga mussels are not native to California or the United States. They are native to the Dneiper River region of the Ukraine, which is near Russia. The quagga mussel got its name after an extinct species of African zebra. It has an average life span of three to five years.
Quagga mussels are filter feeders. They pull water into their shell cavity where plankton is removed. Each adult mussel is capable of filtering one or more quarts of water a day. The mussel is about the size of your fingernail and is a prolific breeder as each female is capable of producing up to a million eggs per year. The larva are called veligers. In their native land they have natural predators, including ducks and various species of fish. In America they have no natural predators.
The bad news is that the quagga mussel has never been eradicated from a body of water once it becomes established. If the quagga mussel ever became established in Clear Lake the effect would be devastating. There are 17 water companies drawing water from Clear Lake and all of these companies would have to constantly clean their screens, which would cost them thousands of dollars, and you can bet that cost would be passed onto the consumers. Lakeside residents wouldn’t be able to moor their boats at their docks because the mussels attach themselves to the water pumps and clog the engines.
Mussels would impact the local fishery as well because they feed on the same plankton that fish require when they are minnows.
If a boat fails to pass the inspection it must be decontaminated before being allowed in the water. The good news is the county’s decontamination process is free.
It’s amazing that mussels haven’t found their way into more lakes in Northern California. They are spreading throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, yet for some reason they haven’t reached our lakes in the northern part of the state.
Lake County is actually far ahead of most counties in its mussel prevention program. No other county in the northern part of the state has as strict an inspection program as Lake County. Hopefully the quagga mussel never finds its way into the waters of Clear Lake. It would change the lake’s character forever.
