Quiet Invaders

I walked down the concrete apron of the boat launch on the Schoharie on the first of this month. The state had just pulled the dock there and the pieces were stacked on shore.

Crunch! Crack! Snap, pop, pop, pop. I had stepped on something on the otherwise smooth concrete. Lots of somethings in fact. I looked down to find a pair of tracks the width of the dock pontoons consisting of thousands upon thousands of zebra mussel shells.

Anyone who walks the river when the dams are open has no doubt noticed that the entire river bed is paved with shells when the waters abate. Still it was once again surprising to see the sheer numbers of them.

They are thought to have arrived in the Great Lakes in ships' ballast from Europe or Asia during the 1980s. Obviously they have been kinda busy since then.....