Syzdekistan

This week I was at the Colorado River Aquatic Biologists (CRABs, cute huh?) meeting this week in Laughlin. The biggest discussion was about the discovery of the highly invasive zebra mussels in Lake Mead. The mussels were probably carried into the lake on a trailer boat from contaminated waters. The effects of the zebra mussels in Lake Mead is not known but will probably be bad. I’m not sure about the effects that the mussels will have on our water intakes but it will be interesting to see how we deal with the mussels. More frighteningly, Nevada Department of Wildlife inspected their Lake Mead Fish Hatchery and found the pipes and structures had mussels. That means that the hatchery got infested through the Basic Magnesium intake. Perhaps their fish releases also released mussels around the state. Let’s hope not.

On other invasive species news, there was also talk of the alligator gar being found in the Lake Mead. Maybe the gar, which can get up to 12 feet long and 300 pounds will eat the mussels. Maybe not. Anyway, the situation reminds of the Simpsons when Springfield is invaded by lizards that eat pigeons.

Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn’t that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we’re overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They’ll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren’t the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we’re prepared for that. We’ve lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we’re stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that’s the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.