If you do much driving in the summer months, especially across state lines, you’ve no doubt seen the inspection stations admonishing boaters to stop to have their vessels looked at. The point of these stations is to stop the spread of invasive species from one part of the country into another. Obviously, some species have feet or wings and can do it on their own, but oftentimes, waterborne animals like to hitch a ride on our boats. That’s especially true of mussels, barnacles, and other stationary water species. One such variety, the zebra mussel, is especially pernicious and causes trouble, not only to a personal watercraft, but to the surrounding ecosystem. So what makes them so bad and how can we stop them?
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