Record inspections to keep invasive mussels out

Posted on February 20, 2025 by admin

By Trevor Busch
Westwind Weekly News
editor@tabertimes.com

Enhanced efforts to prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels into Alberta waterways is paying off according to new statistics released by the provincial government.

The invasive species, already pervasive in many neighbouring jurisdictions in North America, carry the potential to cause untold damage to the province’s rivers and lakes, and especially irrigation systems, should an infestation take root in Alberta. 

This past spring, Alberta identified a rising risk of invasive mussels entering the province. Reports of the invasive mussels were increasing across Canada and the United States, as the tiny species can be easily spread through boats and other watercraft. These mussels rapidly damage waterways and infrastructure, destroy habitats and can cause hundreds of millions in damages. 

In 2024, the provincial government implemented new measures to keep the province 100 per cent free of dangerous zebra and quagga mussels. More than 13,000 boats and watercrafts were inspected entering the province, the most since 2019, along with increased fines, expanded inspection stations and officers, and other actions that kept the province safe during the boating season.

“Zebra and quagga mussels have been a real focal point of our government. I’ve been working with Minister Schulz in Environment and Protected Areas, and we put together a task force that is bringing forward a report and ideas about what we can do to keep these invasive species out of Alberta. So we’ve done a good job so far. We are catching people coming in that have the zebra and quagga mussels attached to the hulls of boats,” said Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter, who also serves as the chair of the province’s Aquatic Invasive Species Task Force. “It’s important for boaters to know if they’re coming from outside of the province, that they need to get checked and if there is anything on them, that they get them cleaned. If they were to get into the into our waterways, especially into our irrigation canals and pipelines, they clog up the intakes, and it’s almost impossible to get them out. It’s very difficult to be able to actually treat it. And so our best strategy is to actually keep them out. So prevention is our strategy.”

In 2024, the government established the Aquatic Invasive Species Task Force, increased the number of water inspection stations from five to seven, added a roving inspection team and launched a multi-phase public awareness campaign to prevent invasive mussels from being established here. Alberta now has the largest fines in North America, raising them to $4,200 for failing to stop at an open inspection station and $600 for failing to remove a drain plug when transporting a watercraft.

“I’ve been working with a task force now for a little over three months, and we’ve moved pretty quickly on things,” continued Hunter. “I thought it was silly that our fines were so low, considering what kind of damage these things can do to our irrigation. We have 70 per cent of Canada’s irrigation right here in southern Alberta. So we’ve made it so that it’s the largest, most expensive find in Canada. And we’re taking it very seriously. We want people to enjoy the lakes and our irrigation canals, we want them to be able to enjoy the waterways in Alberta, but we don’t want to have these things coming in and causing untold damages. It’s hundreds of millions of dollars a year they pay to mitigate these things in other jurisdictions, we don’t want to have that sort of thing happen here.”

During this year’s boating season, Alberta inspected 13,408 boats and other watercraft, over 4,500 more than during 2023. This led to 15 contaminated watercraft being detected with invasive mussels attached, a majority of them travelling from eastern provinces. Also, 20 fines were issued for failing to stop at an open watercraft inspection station.

Moving forward, the provincial task force and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas will explore ways to build on this success to strengthen protection against invasive mussels and other aquatic species in 2025.