coppertalk

Zebra mussels, Dreissena polymorpha, striped freshwater mollusks the size of a thumbnail, have become a huge problem in American waterways, causing what the U.S. Coastguard estimates to be $5 billion dollars in damage annually.

The tiny mollusks will attach to almost any hard surface, colonizing the hulls of vessels, docks, engine cooling systems, and other substrate machinery. In large enough numbers, they can sink navigational buoys and put such a drag on vessels that they slow them down, costing both time and fuel.

Hardy and prolific, an adult female zebra mussel can produce up to a million eggs in a year. The free-swimming larvae are as troublesome as the adults, invading the intake pipes of water treatment facilities that serve homes and businesses.

Once confined to the Black and Caspian Seas, zebra mussels were introduced to Western Europe in the course of trade missions from Russia and Poland in the early 19th century. North America was spared until 1988, when infested bilge water was dumped into Lake St. Clair and the zebra mollusk began its colonization of Americas Great Lakes.

In the future, copper will likely play a significant role in the control of zebra mussels and other biofouling organisms. Read more about the problem and solution.