Zebra Invasion Intensifies on Buck Lake

John Curran | Aug 05, 2020

Have you ever gone on an ambitious diet and done well for a long time only to fall off the wagon? All of your hard work undone in a blizzard of carbs, fat and whipped cream.

You’re left with a feeling of regret and failure that can drive some so deep into depression that takes professional assistance to buoy them back to where they belong.

That’s the feeling I got when I helped Buck Laker Orrie Michea put his cottage to bed for the season last fall. It was beautiful autumn weather, but when the Michea’s raft came out of the water it quickly became one of the worst days ever: the bottom of the raft had a thick coating of zebra mussels below the waterline.

Zebra mussels seem to have been around forever, three decades plus in Ontario now, and we made it so long collectively as a lake without these showing up in the Buck, but now here they are and we’re going to need to face them.

“Zebra mussels were first discovered in the Great Lakes in 1988 and have since spread to most lakes in Southern Ontario that can sustain mussel populations,” said Lisa Solomon, Management Biologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) – Peterborough District, Kingston Area Office.

For years, it seemed Buck Lake would escape this invasive scourge, but no longer. It sounds as though the mussels first arrived in the South end of the South Arm in about 2016.

“Our entire waterfront of stepping rocks has been covered in these for four years now,” complained Cynthia Louis MacIntyre on the Buck Lake Association facebook. “I now have to wear running shoes in and out of the lake just to go for a swim. They have totally destroyed the jump in and walk out, ease of access.”

According to the OMNR, the only way to control zebra mussels is to physically remove them, but that is easier said than done.

“Even a paint scrapper, bristle brush and my new power washer won’t get rid of them,” added MacIntyre.

Solomon explained that zebra mussels have profound effects on the entire aquatic ecosystem. Being phytoplankton feeders, they cause lakes to become clearer and reduce zooplankton communities that rely on phytoplankton as a food source.

“The alteration of the bottom of the food chain affects almost all species and can change the biomass and distribution from the smallest zooplankton to the top predators in a lake,” she said. “Many other fish species are affected as well, most notably in the larval stage of their life cycle when they feed on plankton.”

“We have a bunch of them in the South end,” confirmed Leslie Fulton.

“We pulled our ladder out last summer for repairs and it was LOADED with them,” added Margaret Snyder Heinikel.

What’s different about 2020 is that this year marks the first year with reports of mussels showing up significantly North of the Narrows.

“I found one attached to a tool that I dropped in the water in the spring that I just recovered last weekend,” said resident Tim Wood.

Melonie Norman-Veenstra, who’s place is on the South Arm near Birch Island, found a small colony of zebra mussels in late July.

“While fixing my dock today I found these things attached to a board under it,” she said.

Some have even reported seeing them on rocks around Porcupine Island.

The most common ways that zebra mussels spread is by attachment to boats or as free-swimming larvae in live wells or bait buckets, explained Solomon, adding the species can also invade downstream lakes through passive drift.

“We are committed to reducing the spread of aquatic invasive species and fish diseases,” she said. “To prevent the spread, boats and gear that have been in the water should be thoroughly inspected for ‘hitchhikers’. Before moving to another lake, boats and gear should also be cleaned, drained and dried.”

OMNR points out that some aquatic invasive species can survive up to two weeks out of water and not every invader attached to your boat can be seen with the naked eye. To remove those you can’t see, dry your boat for at least five days in sunlight, or clean your boat from top to bottom with hot water over 50°C or pressurized water over 250 PSI.

“Earlier this month, the province finalized ‘Ontario’s Sustainable Bait Management Strategy,’” added Solomon. “The strategy modernizes Ontario’s bait management approach by addressing issues related to the use and movement of bait, the type of bait allowed, and barriers pertaining to commercial bait licences.”

Only half of Buck Lake actually need fear the arrival of zebra mussels as they require the right conditions to survive. The North Arm, like many and many lakes on the Canadian shield, has lower calcium concentrations and is more acidic. The result is the mussels can’t form their shells and they die off quickly.

Zebra mussels are now facing a threat of their own in the form of a new invader – the Quagga mussel – which has recently been found in the Great Lakes. Another critter that hitchhiked its way out of the Black Sea where Europe and Asia collide, in lakes with both species quagga mussels often outcompete zebra mussels in terms of growth, reproduction and development. In fact they may eventually squeeze the zebras out of Ontario all together. The point is somewhat moot, mind you, as quaggas have the same detrimental effects on the environment as zebras.

More information on invasive species, pathways, reporting and control can be found on the Ontario Invasive Species Awareness Program website: http://www.invadingspecies.com/.

If you are planning to do a little lake hoping and will be trailering your boat when you go, the Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (EDDMaps) is an excellent tool that allows users to report invasive species and also to look up where invasive species occur. EDDMaps provides an app that can be used on a smart phone or desktop device at www.eddmaps.org.