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| Paging Pointer, Paging Pointer....
Here it is! The AIS Super Thread. This is the place to talk all things directly related to AIS. I.D.'s, behaviors, observations, prevention, etc. Everything except ramp closures.
Let's talk about it.
Ill start with a quote from another recent thread that asks a question I too was wondering:
Moltisanti - 6/18/2013 11:30 AM
Here is another hijack of the thread...
Pointer, why is the St. Croix River and Lake Huron now devoid of zebra mussels? As an AIS professional, that has to be big news.
5 years ago, you couldn't pull a stick out of the water anywhere between Stillwater and Prescott that didn't have 10,000 zebras attached to it. And now they're basically gone.
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/146207365.html
Personally I'm rooting for Drum and River/Greater Red horse stepping up their chow games and getting after 'um! I doubt it's the only cause, but I believe that they've had their effect. Especially considering fresh water mussles have always been a mainstay to the River Red diet and Drums fondness for large crusteastions once they get large.
One other mussel related note. I was on Green Bay this winter for White fish and was very surprised to find Quagga Mussels and shell fragments in 5 or the 6 fish I cleaned. I talked with the rest of our party and everyone else reported the same things. Which raises the question. Are we as sportsman willing to leave a hot bite when doing so could have impact in AIS control?
Edited by Thunderpumper 6/18/2013 12:37 PM
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Location: The desert | Interesting news, I hadn't heard anything about it yet but I am on vacation in WI and am working on transitioning to MN in July. Buying a house on a whim isn't the easiest task!
I'll kind of echo what the article states that we should be cautious in the thought that they are gone for good. Certainly we can be hopeful that they are gone for good. If they don't show up for some time then it will be interesting to see what has lee to their down fall and can we replicate these results in other waters in a cost effective and ecosystem friendly manner. Once I move to the state my guess is I'll hear a bit more about this and if I get some news I'll be happy to pass it along. |
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Location: Hudson, WI | The two theories offered up thus far are that the extended high water of the past few years flushed them out/stopped their reproductive cycle. The other theory is that the sheephead and bluegills (which have had a boom in the last 5 years) figured out they could eat them and went to town. |
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Location: Hudson, WI | Thunderpumper - 6/18/2013 12:23 PM
One other mussel related note. I was on Green Bay this winter for White fish and was very surprised to find Quagga Mussels and shell fragments in 5 or the 6 fish I cleaned. I talked with the rest of our party and everyone else reported the same things. Which raises the question. Are we as sportsman willing to leave a hot bite when doing so could have impact in AIS control?
I'm totally fine with leaving a red-hot sheephead bite alone! |
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Location: The desert | Moltisanti - 6/18/2013 12:02 PM
The two theories offered up thus far are that the extended high water of the past few years flushed them out/stopped their reproductive cycle. The other theory is that the sheephead and bluegills (which have had a boom in the last 5 years) figured out they could eat them and went to town.
Certainly plausible theories, or even a combination of the two. Perhaps this is the next WR sheepshead and bluegill water!
In their native habitats zebras are controlled by predation. |
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Location: Hudson, WI | Usually you would need a low population density to grow a world record. I would guess the sheephead population out there is somewhere in the 1200-1300 fish per acre area, give or take. |
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Location: The desert | Moltisanti - 6/18/2013 12:24 PM
Usually you would need a low population density to grow a world record. I would guess the sheephead population out there is somewhere in the 1200-1300 fish per acre area, give or take.
That's a lot of sheepshead! |
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Location: Hudson, WI | Might be a slight exaggeration... |
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| Sheephead! I'm less inclined to credit the Bluegills on account of the basel threads on Zeebs are so strong. Rivers and Greaters are not only much larger, Rivers have specialized teeth in the back of their mouths for crushing mollusks. I'm fine with people avoiding Drum (as if it's possible) just as long as they're not slitting gills and throwing them back.
I've had days on the Croix and Miss. where 1200-1300/ acre seems about right!
Edited by Thunderpumper 6/18/2013 2:09 PM
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| I live near Lake Winnebago and apparently the sheephead in 'bago have not developed an appetite for zebra mussels yet, the shore is still covered with their shells, etc. But, maybe they will. That would be great.
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| One simple question: Can we really stop it? Is the spread of AIS inevitable?
After a long day on Tonka there are literally thousands of zebes on my boat. I do my best to rinse em off but find it tough to believe I really get 'em all. I do pressure wash between bodies of water but many don't. I don't think the "inspectors" aka students, are all that effective for the obvious reasons. My question really is: When do we go from spending on "prevention" to spending on "control"? Where is the money really going to be most effective? |
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Location: The desert | Ben Olsen - 6/18/2013 11:21 PM
One simple question: Can we really stop it? Is the spread of AIS inevitable?
After a long day on Tonka there are literally thousands of zebes on my boat. I do my best to rinse em off but find it tough to believe I really get 'em all. I do pressure wash between bodies of water but many don't. I don't think the "inspectors" aka students, are all that effective for the obvious reasons. My question really is: When do we go from spending on "prevention" to spending on "control"? Where is the money really going to be most effective?
How do you control it? There really aren't many ways. Your best control is to slow the spread, in hopes that someone develops a cost effective control method. Zequanox has shown some promise. Something interesting is going on in the St. Croix. But aside from that there aren't many more options. We could dump millions of dollars of chemicals in the water killing everything but I don't think that would be well received. |
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| I don't think you can stop it entirely, but you can slow or reduce the spread with some basic steps such as power washing. Just paying attention is big part of prevention. There is a tournament on the chain where we have a cottage every year. It is put on by the local musky club and most guys who fish it are members and fish the chain a lot. A couple years ago, the club contacted our lake association and asked that it send a number of volunteers to check boats prior to the tournament and provide information packets to everyone participating. The club officers know the chain is vulnerable and thought it was a good idea to remind participants of that. The volunteers showed up early and were surprised to see that about one out of three boats had aquatic vegetation visible on the boats or trailers. By the way in Oneida county, that is grounds for a $250 fine, regardless of what the vegetation is. The volunteers just helped the boat owners remove the vegetation and that was it. The organizers of the tournament were really surprised. One commented that he thought the local guys would be more concerned and should be taking care of the lakes. But, folks take their boats out when they are tired, rushed, etc. and don't always give it a once over, let alone a good cleaning. |
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