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Musseling In_Layout 1 18-09-18 3:03 PM Page 3

Christian Tremblay of Parks Canada and summer students
Colleen Robertson and Kathryn Yarchuk collect water samples
at Lake Katherine to test for the presence of zebra mussels.

Zebra mussels were found in Lake Winnipeg in
2013, marking the first confirmed presence of the
animal in Manitoba.
The animal was later confirmed in the Red River and
Cedar Lake in 2015, but Riding Mountain would
prove itself free of them for at least two years after
that.
But last December, Parks Canada announced that begun reproducing — females can produce up to a
water samples taken from Whirlpool Lake, located million eggs a year.
just east of Clear Lake, had come back positive for “That’s why eDNA, it’s a very new approach, but at
environmental DNA, or eDNA, which are small the same time, you never know what that result might
genetic traces left behind by aquatic organisms. mean,” Tremblay said.
As a result, the lake and its campground site were Researchers have used three main techniques in
closed as a precautionary measure. their search for zebra mussels.
While not definitive proof that zebra mussels are The first involves the use of PVC plates, also called
there — along with the fact that no live mussels or substrate samplers, like the ones Tremblay showed
larvae, known as veligers, were found either — the me at Whirlpool Lake.
results were enough to prompt researchers to Zebra mussels are big fans of PVC plastic and the
continue testing the waters of Whirlpool, and others, layered design of the plates allows them to hide
for stronger evidence. underneath.
If caught early, Tremblay said the situation can still Whirlpool has the most substrate samplers in the
be contained. At worst, the mussels have already park, but more than a dozen others lie in Clear Lake,

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