Black sandshells are just one of the many species cultured at Genoa NFH. - FWS photo

Native freshwater mussels have been under attack for the last 20 years by invasive zebra mussels.  Since they were first reported in the Great Lakes in 1985, zebra mussels have marched across all the Great Lakes, down the Illinois River and into the Mississippi River, where unsuspecting barges first transported them into the Upper Mississippi River System. 

The relentless bombardment of zebra mussels decimated native mussel populations including the federally endangered Higgins eye pearlymussel (Higgins eye), causing a rallying of the troops by bringing together the Mussel Coordination Team (MCT), a team of multiple federal and state agencies dedicated to countering the attacks of zebra mussels. 

It was the formation of the MCT that brought Genoa National Fish Hatchery (NFH) into the war against zebra mussels. 

Genoa NFH is the first federal fish hatchery in modern times to successful culture native mussels.  Techniques used by the Genoa NFH and the MCT to culture Higgins eye have since been used to culture five additional mussels species. 

One of these species is the black sandshell, which Genoa NFH has been producing for the past four years.  Black sandshells have been held and grown in cages in Dubuque Iowa’s Ice Harbor for the past two years.  Nearly 150 of these mussels were recently transferred to the Geological Survey’s Upper Mid-West Environmental Science Center, where they will be used to test the effects of a chemical that is reportedly toxic to zebra mussel, but harmless to native mussels. 

Finding a chemical that will only be toxic to zebra mussels will allow managing agencies to start an all out chemical warfare on zebra mussels. 

This project started as a science support proposal, a process where resources from the two sister agencies of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the US  Geological Survey are pooled to research and solve specific resource related questions.