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    Mussels

    Uploaded by

    Niko Paschali
    1) Zebra mussels were accidentally introduced to the Great Lakes in 1986 from ballast water of ships and have since spread rapidly, clogging water intake pipes. 2) However, scientists have discovered zebra mussels are highly efficient at filtering toxins and pathogens from water, more so than conventional filtration methods. They can remove particles as small as a single Cryptosporidium parasite. 3) Researchers are now exploring using zebra mussels to monitor water quality and trace pollutants. They may help clean up contaminated areas by filtering suspended radioactive matter in lakes near Chernobyl. Zebra mussels, while invasive, may help address environmental problems through their filtering abilities.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    Mussels

    Uploaded by

    Niko Paschali
    41 views2 pages
    1) Zebra mussels were accidentally introduced to the Great Lakes in 1986 from ballast water of ships and have since spread rapidly, clogging water intake pipes. 2) However, scientists have discovered zebra mussels are highly efficient at filtering toxins and pathogens from water, more so than conventional filtration methods. They can remove particles as small as a single Cryptosporidium parasite. 3) Researchers are now exploring using zebra mussels to monitor water quality and trace pollutants. They may help clean up contaminated areas by filtering suspended radioactive matter in lakes near Chernobyl. Zebra mussels, while invasive, may help address environmental problems through their filtering abilities.

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    1) Zebra mussels were accidentally introduced to the Great Lakes in 1986 from ballast water of ships and have since spread rapidly, clogging water intake pipes. 2) However, scientists have discovered zebra mussels are highly efficient at filtering toxins and pathogens from water, more so than conventional filtration methods. They can remove particles as small as a single Cryptosporidium parasite. 3) Researchers are now exploring using zebra mussels to monitor water quality and trace pollutants. They may help clean up contaminated areas by filtering suspended radioactive matter in lakes near Chernobyl. Zebra mussels, while invasive, may help address environmental problems through their filtering abilities.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    41 views2 pages

    Mussels

    Uploaded by

    Niko Paschali
    1) Zebra mussels were accidentally introduced to the Great Lakes in 1986 from ballast water of ships and have since spread rapidly, clogging water intake pipes. 2) However, scientists have discovered zebra mussels are highly efficient at filtering toxins and pathogens from water, more so than conventional filtration methods. They can remove particles as small as a single Cryptosporidium parasite. 3) Researchers are now exploring using zebra mussels to monitor water quality and trace pollutants. They may help clean up contaminated areas by filtering suspended radioactive matter in lakes near Chernobyl. Zebra mussels, while invasive, may help address environmental problems through their filtering abilities.

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    Health

    T:;'r:""'
    A CAIL
    FOR

    ln praise of a pest
    Zebra mussels, it seems, are superb water filters
    ince

    NOMINATIONS

    tleir arrival in Canada

    by stealth

    {iom Europe in 1986, zebra musseis have become the poster creature for
    invasive aquatic species. Of*re more tlan 140 alien life-forms known to have made

    themselves at home in *re Great lakes, the thumbnail-sized, rapidly multipllng mollusks have wreaked by far the most havoc. Anaching themselves in colonies to any hard surface, tiey have become a costly problem for boat and dock owners,

    contaminants are in the water." He and Environment Canada research scientist Yves de la-fontaine of Monueal, who collected specimens for Grazykt study, are among specialists who were to have presented papers lauding the mollusk's filtering abilities at an international conference on aquadc invasive species in Alexandria, Va., this week. Because of the terrorist atacks ofSept. I I, that conference has been
    rescheduled for February. The scientists'

    water-treatment plants, generaring srations-any industry that draws water

    through increasingly clogged intake


    pipes. Bur now scientisu are seeing a potential upside to zebra mussels. According to tiese experrs, the peslcy invaders do a

    magnificent job offiltering toxins and unwanted parasites from water. Conventional filtration methods, says parasirol-

    ogist Thaddeus K. Graczyk of Johns

    Hopkins Universiry in Baltimore,

    are

    "not even close" to the cleansing efficiency

    of znbra mussels.
    Graczyk predicts a time when they will be widely used as a monitoring tool at water plants. "An analysis ofmussels in intake

    findings cite the shellfisht skill at ingesting suspended pardcles containing wery'thing from triburyltrn, a toxic ingredient in marine paint, to tie letial Cryptospoidium parasite and the E. coli bug that killed seven people drrough contaminated water in Walkenon, Ont., last year. Ontario Power Generarion Inc., then called Ontario Hydro, launched the conferences in 1991 in response to rle zebra mussel problem. Inadvertendy delivered to the Great lakes from rhe ballast water of freighters, these fast-spreading mollusks have imposed on humans like no invader before or since. "The electriciw-

    This December, Maclean's lGth annual Honour Roll will presenr This special report will appear in
    the December 24th issue, on newsstands the week of December l7th.
    12 profiles of Canadians who have made a difference to the nation.

    Know anylocal heroes in your community?


    Readers are invited to submit nominadons with testimonials of 50 words

    or

    less.

    To be considered, candidates

    pipes," he says, "could determine what


    They clog

    generating industry had its b"ck ,ip


    againsr rhe wall.

    it had to stan paying

    at-

    must be Canadian citizens who have made a significant contribution to the life of the nation in 2001.
    Maclean's editors seek people from

    intake pipes, but they also rid water of E. coti and other hazardous contents

    a wide variery of fields, famous or not, with only one exception: those engaged professionally in politics.
    Submissions should be sent to: The Editor Maclean's 777 Bay Street
    Toronto, Ontario M5W 1A7
    Fax us your nomination at

    ore-mait

    usut@@@@fl

    (416) 596-7730

    .9

    Health
    tendon," says marine biologist Renara Claudi, an environmental consultant based in Picron, Ont. For 10 years until Augusr, 2000, a: senior scientist for OPG, her sole responsibiliry was zebra mussels.

    And what a problem rhey


    have been. A single female can

    produce 500,000 eggs per

    Great deals. No lines. Open24/7. What's there to be afraid of?

    year, leadrng to recorded pop-

    ulations as high as 700,000 mussels per square metre. But, de lafontaine nores that

    during the warm months,


    each adu.lt mussel can filter a Iitre of water a day. removing algae, mineral particles, poilu-

    tants and other potentially

    life-threatening parhogens
    and bacteria. "Since the zebra mussels are here to stay," he figures, "maybe drey can help
    us

    Researchers check ballast water of a ship docked


    in Windsor, 0nt., for signs of any foreign species

    to find solutions ro some problems." De lafontaine and his colleag.res have been studyingTBT contamination in rhe
    St. lawrence River.

    to seeing zebra mussels used widely as an indicator to track the presence of TBI
    Cryp

    tospondium and other pollutants.

    Until Canada banned

    it in 1989, TBT was a comnron ingredient in marine paints because it normally acts as a toxin to shellfish and other life. "TBT is one of the most toxic substances in aquatic systems," he says. Itt also hard
    to detect because itb not water soluble and instead binds to particles-particles rhat zebra mussels can ingest. Analyzing the

    In fact, zebra mussels are alreadv at rie heart of one water-qualiry project. Jim Selegear, a Derroit hydraulic engineer, is using them ro monitor E. coli in Michi-

    Clinton fuver, which flows into lake St. Clair, upstream from Windsor,
    gan's

    Ont. The convenrional method of collecting samples in bordes only indicates


    t}re water quality at a specific time. It can-

    With MasterCard's
    Liability Policy, you're not responsible for unauthorized
    Zer o

    charges made on your card. Not on the Web. Not anywhere.

    contents of mussels collected off Quebec City, de lafontainet group recorded the highatTBT concenrration ever found in a Canadian {ieshwater harbour. De Lafontaine also provided mussels for work Gracryk did wirh Cryptospoidium, a single-celled parasite that infects the intestinal tract ofhumans and animals and is excreted in feces. An outbreal< of

    not show if pollution has already passed downstream, but an analysis of *ri contents of zebra mussels can. "They filter continuously," says Selegean,'tonsandy storing any bacteria from the water." Another impressive resamenr to zebra mussels' cleaning capaciry: a plan to use them to help ciean up the worldt most
    conaminated region, the area surrounding tlre Chernobyl nuclear reacor in tX.min; drat melted down in 1986. About Z0 per cent of its fallout rained on neighbouring Belarus. There, biophpicist Bob Baier oi the Universiry of NewYork at Buffalo proposes using zebra mussels to filter sus-

    www.mastercard.ca
    O2001

    Cryptospoidium tn Mrlwaukee in 1993 left 110 people dead and 400,000 sick. There is no safe lwel in drinking water; a single parasite c:m cause infecdon. Most common forms of disinfectant, including chlorine and ozone, do not harm Cryp-tosporidium, which, just the size of a human red blood."pell, is difficu.lt ro remove. Zebra mussels, howwer, c:n handily filter our pardcles that size. The investigation estimates that a square-meue colony of them could digest 13 million Cryptosporidium parasites in about two hours. Graczyk and de lafontaine look forward

    Miltercdd

    Intemationat

    In@Wnted

    soon be at work protecring peoplet health, and earning at least some forgiveness for

    pended marrer containing radioactive fiom Belarus lakes. To Baiea thq' are 'narure's specialiss" in *re cleanup of polluunts. Around the Great lakes, th.y -"y
    waste

    the havoc they have caused.

    Hebn Buttery

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