Mandated boat inspections proposed to thwart mussels

[Ptah]

Proposed new rules would mandate inspections of boats entering the state or crossing the Continental Divide as part of stepped-up efforts to control the spread of destructive quagga and zebra mussels, which were detected in larvae form for the first time in Montana in October.

“These are big changes,” said Eileen Ryce, chief of the Fisheries Division at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

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In adult form, quagga and zebra mussels, a small shellfish named for the striped pattern of its shell, are not native to Montana, and they can sterilize lakes. Prodigious water filterers, they alter the food web and fish composition by filtering up to a liter of water per day and removing essential phytoplankton, according to FWP.

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The Columbia River basin west of the Divide is of particular concern because it isn’t infested, Ryce said. That basin includes the southeastern portion of British Columbia, most of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, western Montana, and small parts of Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2017/03/12/mandated-boat-inspections-proposed-thwart-mussels/99084440/