Parks Canada deploys curtain to contain zebra mussels in Clear Lake

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A yellow containment curtain is being installed and soon to be fully deployed in an effort to contain the spread of zebra mussels in Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park.

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But Dameon Wall hopes that doesn’t discourage visitors from heading up to the park this Terry Fox Day August long weekend.

“Visitors will see a difference at Clear Lake in terms of there being a big yellow float along the surface of the lake in the main beach area,” said Wall, Parks Canada’s external relations manager at Riding Mountain National Park. “(But) The businesses are open, there’s lots to do in Riding Mountain Park that’s not about boating. You can still go swimming, you can still go fishing. We’ve got 400 km of hiking and biking trails.

“Come on out and enjoy nature. Build those memories that you’re used to building at Clear Lake and Wasagaming.”

Once installation is complete, the containment curtain will run around two kilometres from the west side of Boat Cove to Clear Lake’s main beach in Wasagaming. The impermeable curtain will try to contain an area where a zebra mussel and partial shells were found in mid-July by Parks Canada snorkellers.

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The first section of the curtain was installed on Monday and installation should be completed this weekend after weather delayed the deployment. It is a heavy waterproof membrane that will naturally fall to the bottom of the lake where it is then secured with weights and a chain.

“The plan here is to have this containment curtain around a section of Clear Lake where we have detected evidence of zebra mussels,” said Wall. “Once that curtain’s in place, that will prevent the genetic material and actual veligers – which are baby mussels – from being able to leave that area and enter other parts of the lake.

“The goal here ultimately is once that containment curtain is in place is if it’s feasible we will be moving towards a potash treatment and eradicate the zebra mussels. We are waiting for other data and test results to come back before we make that decision because if these mussels are already outside of the curtain or in other parts of the lake than we will not be treating.”

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Wall said they are confident that the curtain will contain the evasive species to the Boat Cove area where they were detected. Water sampling and testing for veligers has been carried out elsewhere in the lake.

“If we cannot treat them (in Boat Cove), we will move towards managing these things for the long term here,” said Wall, laying out the worst-case scenerio. “They will become established here in Clear Lake and we have to figure out what does that mean for the future in terms of how we manage the lake.”

Earlier this week, Parks Canada paused operations for Clear Lake’s Martese — a tourist vessel initially exempt from the boat ban — due to a positive zebra mussel environmental DNA sample was found near the marina the Martese operates out of.

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“There were no mussels found on that boat, there were no concerns of veligers on that boat,” he said. “The concern there was that he was in an area that we found environmental DNA very close by and we don’t want that environmental DNA going along or following along the boat.”

“We are heartbroken to announce that as of July 31, 2024, The Martese Cruises are shut down for the remainder of the 2024 season,” the company posted on their web site and Facebook page. “The Clear Lake Marina cannot provide Martese Cruises or watercraft rentals in 2024, due to Riding Mountain National Parks’ efforts to mitigate and potentially eradicate zebra mussels in Clear Lake.”

glen.dawkins@kleinmedia.ca

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