Right in the centre - Thinking before acting might have been better
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- Published on Thursday, February 20, 2025
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
I have been watching various news releases about Zebra Mussels in Clear Lake for a couple of years now.
Initially, government officials vowed to fight off the mussels by insisting that boats be scrubbed between uses. I laughed inside a bit about that. For the last 40 years or so, few, if any, jurisdictions, have been able to control these nasty little, pipe clogging, boat encrusting, sharp-shelled critters.
First, the government restricted boats, even boats that never left Clear Lake. They restricted rental paddle boats for heaven鈥檚 sake and they don鈥檛 leave Clear Lake either. Then they put up a dam around the infestation, but they forgot to get permission from the wind and waves and the plastic dam was destroyed in a matter of days.
The whole affair would be quite laughable actually if it weren鈥檛 so serious and sad. The government wasn鈥檛 going to be able to contain the mussels, they spent a lot of money trying and they placed a whole batch of restrictions, causing havoc with the tourism business at Clear Lake. I think the government and Parks Canada were pretty dumb on this issue.
Then, just last week it was reported in the Winnipeg Free Press that, 鈥淚n a late-January news release, Parks Canada announced it would reopen the lake to boaters in 2025, albeit under a 鈥渙ne boat, one lake鈥� program, after finding hundreds of young zebra mussels on the eastern side of the lake 鈥� a couple of kilometres east of the main marina where staff first found evidence of the invasive species.
鈥淒ata gathered in 2024 demonstrated that zebra mussels are much more spread out in the lake than initially thought,鈥� Parks Canada said in an email.
鈥淎s such, an eradication attempt would not be feasible.鈥�
I think anyone with an ounce of intelligence had that 鈥渕ore wide spread鈥� statement figured out long before the Parks Canada people did.
At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, US President Ronald Reagan said, 鈥淭he nine most terrifying words in the English language are 鈥業鈥檓 from the government and I鈥檓 here to help.鈥欌��
That statement still rings true unfortunately!
This whole Zebra Mussels debacle at Clear Lake didn鈥檛 stop the mussels and most of us knew they wouldn鈥檛 stop them. The government spent a whole lot of money for nothing and cost Clear Lake people a fortune in lost business.
It鈥檚 still a matter of discussion, but it is reported that Zebra Mussels may actual clean up lakes, but perhaps Clear Lake doesn鈥檛 need cleaning. Just the same, an internet search shows that 鈥淢ussels are filter feeders, which means they feed by clearing nutrients from the water passing through them. The rate of reproduction and spread of zebra mussels make them efficient cleaners of Great Lakes water, but whether that鈥檚 a positive or negative thing depends on who you鈥檙e asking.鈥�
There is no doubt that Zebra Mussels are persistent in reproducing, they clog water intake pipes and encrust just about everything they come in contact with. They can be controlled by using potassium in the water but that topic would need some more research. That would be a good idea in the same way that it would have been better if Parks Canada researched how ineffective their efforts of the past two years have been.
