A Lake Winnipeg commercial fisher who had warned the government years ago about the rise of algal blooms and the advent of zebra mussels is sounding the horn on quagga mussels, which are causing environmental and economic damage in the Great Lakes and waterways in various parts of the United States.
Robert T. Kristjanson, who has been fishing for over 70 years and earned the Order of Manitoba in 2018 for raising awareness of algal blooms, said he’s concerned there’s not enough being done by the government to stop quagga mussels, an aquatic invasive species (AIS), from hitching a ride on boats from away.
Quaggas could damage Manitoba’s commercial fishery and angling industry.
“If the quagga comes to Lake Winnipeg, that will be the end of our lake. The destruction will be terrible,” said Kristjanson. “What are we doing in this province to prevent this? Are we going to let boaters travel in every direction throughout Manitoba? These things are dynamite.”
Quagga mussels have already invaded lakes such as Ontario, Erie and Huron and the St. Lawrence River. They’ve also spread to several American states including North Dakota, Utah and California. They latch onto boats and other watercraft, boat trailers and fishing equipment and can be easily spread between water bodies.
Quaggas are more prolific breeders than zebra mussels, can live in deep water and will compete for food and space with native aquatic species. Both mussels were introduced to Canada and the United States from the Caspian and Black Sea regions in the ballast water of ocean vessels using the St. Lawrence River.
Lake Winnipeg in already inundated with zebra mussels, which can wash up on beaches in the hundreds of thousands, preventing locals and tourists from using the beach. They filter plankton from the water, depleting the food source for other species and can colonize areas where fish spawn. They threaten Manitoba Hydro generating stations by attaching to and blocking pipes.
Kristjanson said boats at Gimli Harbour last week were covered with zebra mussels. But zebras will pale in comparison to the quaggas. He travels occasionally to Ontario for business and has seen firsthand how quagga mussels in Lake Erie disrupt its commercial fishery.
“Zebra mussels get in our nets but you can shake them out. Quaggas will hook onto nets and everything else and you can’t shake them out. They stick to the nets like a clamp. You can’t even pull them off,” he said. “I was in Lake Erie where nets were piled for half a block and full of quagga mussels.”
A friend of his recently returned from the United States, he said, and told him the authorities there are taking stringent measures to prevent the further spread of quagga mussels.
“The quagga is in North Dakota. [My friend] said it doesn’t matter where you go, you can’t take boats from one lake to another,” said Kristjanson. “They won’t let any boat on the water unless it’s been certified and washed and carries a card.”
To contain the ongoing spread of zebra mussels in national parks, Parks Canada (the federal government) implemented new boating rules for Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park after zebra mussel DNA was detected in the lake earlier this year.
Boat operators who’ve been in other water bodies in 2023 will not be issued a permit to boat on Clear Lake, which offers only one boat launch. And after June 15 permits for trailered boats won’t be issued.
“We know that several boats that were launched in RMNP [Riding Mountain National Park] in 2022 had come from lakes that were infested with zebra mussels and some even had adult mussels on them,” says Parks Canada on its website outlining changes to its AIS program for the park.
Its measures also include stepping up the inspection of watercraft such as canoes, kayaks and inflatables, as well as water toys.
Kristjanson said it’s not commercial fishers who are spreading zebra mussels to different waterbodies across Manitoba as they don’t move from lake to lake. It’s the anglers and recreational boaters. And quagga mussels will be spread the same way.
“Anglers will carry the quagga mussel all over Manitoba if they’re not stopped. It will get moved to different lakes just like the zebra mussel. It’s the anglers who are moving from lake to lake. That’s got to be said. We can’t have people coming to Manitoba from all over and moving their boats from this lake to that lake. ‘Oh, I got no fish here today, so I’m going to go to another place.’ That’s what they do,” said Kristjanson.
Lake Winnipeg commercial fisher and analyst Bill Buckels said the provincial government is responsible for the water and it needs to step up.
“Quagga mussels, like COVID, are out there, but nobody wants to believe they exist. We have to close our borders to them because once those mussels are here, it’ll be too late to do anything about them,” said Buckels. “I said over a decade ago that you can’t bring boats and pontoon planes carrying vectors into Manitoba. But there was – and there still is – greed for tourist dollars. That’s responsible for the incursion of AIS. You can’t wash these things away; you have to prevent them from coming.”
The provincial government didn’t take the threat of zebra mussels seriously for years, said Buckels, who sat on a zebra mussel committee. Commercial fishers repeatedly warned the government about them to no avail. The government didn’t even know where to find zebra mussels in Lake Winnipeg and had to ask commercial fishers to show them where they were.
“What’s surely coming here replicates 10 times faster than zebra mussels and they’ll ruin our fishing equipment. Quaggas will clear the water column, use up all the nutrients, break the food chain even further and allow sunlight to penetrate deeper water which will fry the fish,” said Buckels.
Not only will quaggas decimate the commercial fishery, but also the tourism industry and the angling industry, including its network of businesses relying on anglers.
“The province is responsible for all aquatic life; it’s responsible for the bad things in the lake that kill the good things in the lake,” said Buckels. “The food chain in Lake Winnipeg is already broken. It’s down 50 per cent according to a recent study. The province needs to act on this.”
Buckels said the province educating boaters about AIS is all very well, but it’s relying on their willingness to take responsibility for ensuring they aren’t contaminated. Having boots on the ground stopping boats before they arrive will make a difference.
“It costs less for the province to do an awareness campaign than physical enforcement. Does the province stop everyone with a boat heading north up Highway 75 [from the U.S.]?” he said. “It has mobile power washers they set up who knows where for periodic spot-checks.”
The province, in fact, put its power washers away at Hecla Island before the end of the season while anglers were still going fishing. That left the fishery “unprotected for an entire month,” he said.
Buckels said there is a solution to prevent quagga mussels from being spread to or around Manitoba via watercraft coming in from other lakes and jurisdictions. And it would also open up a new revenue stream for angling outfitters.
“The anglers and the commercial fishers should get together to work on saving Lake Winnipeg from quaggas. We have a wonderful fishery here and we have to tell our angling friends from America they need to leave their boats at home,” said Buckels. “Outfitters here could set up rentals where the boats stay on Lake Winnipeg.”
Unlike Parks Canada, the provincial government currently has no plans to limit boats to a single body of water as that would disrupt tourism.
And the cleaning and decontamination of zebra mussels from boats and other watercraft is largely the responsibility of the operator and based on trust that they’ll do so.
“There are no plans at this time to limit motorized and non-motorized watercraft users to a single body of water. While that may be feasible for a single lake, it would be nearly impossible to enforce province-wide and would cause a significant disruption to tourism (affecting both local and out-of-province visitors),” said a spokesperson for the Manitoba department of natural resources and northern development. “The province continues to rely on responsible water users to follow the [legal] requirements, and with reminders such as the watercraft inspection stations and enforcement of those who fail to stop, the message is getting out to water users.”
Every watercraft has to be inspected, he added, but there’s a misconception as to who carries out that inspection.
“The misconception is they must be inspected by Manitoba government staff. It is the individual water user’s responsibility to ensure they are AIS compliant,” said the spokesperson.
The transport of invasive species is preventable, he said. And it’s not only boats that require inspection, but also water-related aircraft, off-road vehicles and water-related items such as inflatables, paddling gear and beach toys.
“This is no different than an automobile user’s responsibility to buckle their seat belt every time before driving. There are supports and enforcement in place, but in the first instance, the onus remains with the user / owner / operator to be legally compliant,” he said. “This is what the “Clean” means in Clean Drain Dry: Inspect the watercraft and all water related equipment before leaving the shore and remove aquatic plants and AIS.”
Manitoba’s watercraft inspection station program is “still being finalized,” but it’s expected there’ll be at least five locations open mid-May, said the spokesperson when asked how many stations there’ll be for 2023.
Thus far, there have been no reports of quagga mussel detection in Manitoba, he said. The province’s AIS program includes working with the federal government as the federal government has “responsibility to prevent the entry of quagga mussels, zebra mussels and the four species of Asian carp (i.e., silver, bighead, grass and black carp) into Canada.”
Many provinces, including Manitoba, worked cooperatively with the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans to prevent the entry into Canada of zebra mussels found in decorative moss balls used in aquariums, said the spokesperson, citing an example of both levels of government working together.
“Quagga mussels are prohibited from entry into Canada, so that is one formal line of defense. They are also prohibited in Manitoba. With compliant water users and our inspectors, enforcement staff and partners support, we can maintain vigilance upholding this prohibition,” he said.
