Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Quagga Mussels Found in Red Fleet Reservoir

(DWR provided the news release below)

Quagga Mussels Found in Red Fleet Reservoir

DWR continues to receive test results

Laboratories in Colorado are still testing water samples taken from 38 lakes and reservoirs in Utah in 2008.

The lab workers are searching for tiny, destructive organisms called quagga mussels and zebra mussels.

Their testing is almost done. And so far, the results the Division of Wildlife Resources has received are encouraging--most of the waters tested do not appear to have mussels in them.

Mussels found in two waters
Mussels have turned up in two waters, however--Electric Lake in central Utah and another water just added to the list, Red Fleet Reservoir.

Red Fleet is about seven miles north of Vernal.

"So far, all of the mussels found have been very small juveniles," says Walt Donaldson, Aquatic Section chief for the DWR.

"That’s a sign that the mussels may not be well established in these two waters yet."

Learn more
You can learn more about mussels--including the damage they can do and what you can do to prevent spreading them--at the DWR's new mussel Web site.

The Web site address is wildlife.utah.gov/mussels.

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