Next time your jumping from lake to lake during this fall fishing season, you will want to make sure you aren’t carrying any aquatic hitchhikers. This may seem like the exact opposite thing a fisherman would want to hear–especially after a long day out on the water without many bites. However, these types of freeloaders aren’t anything you will want to be deep frying.
The zebra mussel is an invasive species which competes with other aquatic life for food, greatly reducing native fish populations. They also reproduce very quickly and in large amounts, making them difficult to control.
Andy Otting, a fishery technician for Iowa’s DNR, says that even though that the zebra mussel is becoming an issue for Iowa’s lakes, there is still something that anglers and boaters can do.
“Try and drain all of the water out of their boats, pull the plugs on their boats, and dry everything out before they go into the next spot.”
By taking these extra steps, people will not only be preventing the spread of this invasive species but can also avoid getting a ticket. Current charges for introducing the zebra mussel into a new lake, launching a watercraft with attached zebra mussels, or even traveling in an area that is marked for zebra mussels is $500.