Zebra mussles in river?

[reefseal]

Did first dive this year in Piscataqua River Portsmouth this AM. One dive by Prescott Park under memorial bridge and other Pierce Island to dive the wall there. I always find neat artifacts in river. I was amazed that I saw what I think were Zebra mussels! The kind you see diving St. Lawrence seaway. I know they were not there last year when dove river. Am I halucinating and mistaking for something else? I hope I'm wrong. There were zillions of tiny little mussels. Had no camera so not able to take pics. This can't be a good thing. Any resident oceanographers, Marine Biologists to confirm?

 

[RIOceanographer]

Check out this page. You might want to call the number for UNH Sea Grant at the bottom:

http://www.des.state.nh.us/factsheets/bb/inc/17.html

 

[reefseal]

thanks. I just read that they are fresh water only so they can't be zebra mussels. Then what was it I saw? I swear they weren't there last year.

 

[mfalco]

thanks. I just read that they are fresh water only so they can't be zebra mussels. Then what was it I saw? I swear they weren't there last year.

I live on cape cod and all the ponds I've been in have fresh water muscles

 

[RIOceanographer]

thanks. I just read that they are fresh water only so they can't be zebra mussels. Then what was it I saw? I swear they weren't there last year.

I should have paid a bit closer attention to where you were talking about. I saw "River" in your post and just started thinking fresh water.

In salt water my guess would be that you saw blue mussels (Mytilus edulis). They are very common in New England and in some years they'll have big sets so it wouldn't be unusual to have them suddenly appear in big numbers at a site. The picture below is of adults, but you'll often see a site carpeted with the tiny ones, and at that size they look almost black.

 

[scubabear6]

Here's a link to a Zebra Mussel page
http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/EXOTICSP/zebra_mussel.htm
There are about the size of your thumbnail and have razor sharp edges. They really are a perfect example of a Good/Bad thing. They did wonders for divers with improving water quality/Visibility but at what cost to the envirorment. Time will tell. They also cover anything that they land on so alot of great wrecks are now covered with them so you can't even see the wreck.