Lake George Scientists believe an aggressive attack on zebra mussels, which threatened to disrupt boaters, swimmers and homeowners, has all but eliminated the pesky invaders. The removal of the mollusk in Lake George would signify the first control program to squelch the mussel, which has inundated all of the state's Finger Lakes, the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, Glen Lake and Saratoga Lake since it was discovered in the state for the first time in Lake Erie in 1989.
High populations can clog boat engines and water uptakes and make beaches jagged.
After a summer of sampling the water, scanning the shoreline and testing the tributaries, scientists have found no evidence the mollusk has turned up or spread in Lake George. This despite a heavy boating and recreation season, where it could have hitched a ride in from another lake by an adult attaching itself to a boat's hull. The larvae of the mollusk, which are free-floating in water, can also be smuggled in with a boat's bilge. Water samples taken throughout the summer at other calcium hot spots found no veligers, the larval stage of the zebra mussel. But even if a few mussels did sneak through the inspection, the chances a sperm and egg would find each other in an expanse of water like Lake George is the equivalent of a reproductive crapshoot, since typically only between 1 and 2 percent survive, Nierzwicki-Bauer said.