A Smart Bio-Based Device For Controlling Invasive Zebra Mussels
Zebra Mussel Invasion !
Native to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea Dreissena polymorpha is a globe trotting invasive species.
Where are they?
Zebra Mussels are classfied as an invasive species in North America and Europe. In Europe they can be found in England, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands. In North America they can be found all throught The Great Lakes Region.
Image credit to https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/SpeciesAnimatedMap.aspx?SpeciesID=5
What's new?
Zebra mussels have been spreading in North America at least since 1986 when they were spotted in Lake Erie. Concerningly, they made their way into lake Winnipeg in 2013. Lake Winnipeg is the largest lake in Manitoba covering 24,514 km2, an area larger than the country of Slovenia.
Why are they a problem?
Ecological Hazard
In many of their new enviroments Zebra mussels have no natural predators, this allows them to grow unchecked. The result is a loss of natural biodiversity as they outcompete natural mussels, in fact they go a step further and actually attack them!
Infrastructure Damage
Zebra mussels are well known fror their ability to cause massive amounts of damage to aquatic Infrasructure.
Reduce Quality of the Enviroment for People
Zebra mussels grow to such high population densities that when they die they can compleatly cover beaches. In fact, in order to recover these public spaces heavy snow clearing equipment is pressed into service!
Conventional Solutions
Most efforts at controlling zebra mussels focuss on controlling spread by monitoring boaters. This helps prevent the mussels from spreading to new lakes. However, once the population is established removal depends on larg concentrations of potash or copper based molluscicides. Not only is this expensive and ecologicaly dammaging, it cannot be applied to large bodies of water.
Our Solution
A targeted and green approach with the large scaling potential. For more information go to description.