Zebra mussels threaten ecological balance

TEN days ago a public meeting was held in a hotel in Galway to discuss the threat posed to Lough Corrib by the invasion of an alien pond weed called Lagarosiphon major.

But the agenda was rather overshadowed by the surpriseannouncement that another alien invader, the zebra mussel, had just been found in the lake.

Zebra mussels are small, striped freshwater mussels native to rivers and lakes in Turkey and the Ukraine. For over a century they have been spreading around the world. Mostly they travel stuck onto the hulls of ships and boats. They are tough creatures that can tolerate journeys through salt water and even survive out of water for days or possibly weeks.