Boaters and other watercraft enthusiasts in Alberta could soon be opening their wallets for annual passes to help stop invasive mussels from colonizing and degrading waterways.
But before a pass system kicks in, the province is collecting Albertans’ thoughts on the idea in a survey that closes Aug. 25. One of 16 questions seeks respondents’ level of enthusiasm for the mandatory pass — supportive, neutral, not supportive, no opinion.
The culprits are zebra and quagga freshwater mussels. Typically the size of a fingernail but sometimes two inches long as adults, they travel well on transported watercraft and breed quickly. Larvae are invisible to the naked eye and, like adults, can sometimes survive for weeks in undrained, unclean and undried boats.
Establishing themselves in new areas, the mussels destroy shorelines, choke out native plants and animals, block sunlight from reaching native flora, and even clog irrigation and drainage infrastructure like valves, pipes and culverts.
Grant Hunter, Alberta’s associate minister of water in the UCP government, said that “once they dig in” mussels would do hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and require ongoing and expensive mitigation. The mussels pose a threat to the environment, recreation, agriculture, the province’s balance sheet and the entire economy, he said.
Putting passes in place is a recommendation of Alberta’s Aquatic Invasive Species Task Force, which Hunter chairs. And as the mussels close in on Alberta in their trek west and north, the member for Taber-Warner remains sold on the idea as a method of adding funds to the war-chest.
“We have to get serious about this,” Hunter said.
Native to the Caspian Sea and Black Sea areas of Eurasia, zebra and quagga mussels started arriving in North America in their larval stage in the 1980s via the discharge of ships’ ballast water. Now established in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, untold billions exist and breed on this side of the Atlantic.
The survival rate of larvae may be low, but a single female lays up to a million eggs for each of her three to five years of life.
More than 85 per cent of boats owned in Canada are towable, according to the industry group Discover Boating. Thanks to its more than 600 lakes, recreational boating in Alberta is a major part of the scene.
Provincial numbers aren’t widely available, but the annual GDP impact in Canada of recreational boating is $5.6 billion to $10 billion, Discover Boating’s website estimates.
B.C. and Saskatchewan, like Alberta, have so far prevented the mussels from establishing themselves. But south of the border alarm bells are ringing.
Quagga larvae and some adults have been discovered over the last few years in Idaho, and dozens of other U.S. states have sustaining populations of one or both species.
The mussels proliferate quickly, and some Great Lakes beaches are covered in the shells of their dead, Hunter said. If you walk on them in bare feet, you’ll cut yourself.
Governments in the Great Lakes region spend $500 million a year to keep intakes and valves clear of mussels, recent reports say. “And they’re going to have to do that in perpetuity,” said Hunter.
“So think about that. They’re in Manitoba now and they're creeping west, and they’re in the States, so Saskatchewan, B.C. the Yukon and us, we’re desperately trying to keep them out and we’re all trying to work together.”
He points to his home turf, where agriculture, irrigation and water management are critical to the economy. In fact 70 per cent of Canada’s irrigated land is in southern Alberta. One study shows that mitigating the effects of mussels on one location only, the McGregor Lake reservoir, would cost $284 million a year.
“And that would not even eradicate them,” Hunter said. “You think about all the pipes in irrigation, throughout the south here. These mussels proliferate so quickly that there would be no way you could auger them out. You’d have to replace everything. I can't even imagine what the cost would be for that.”
Alberta has a system of mandatory watercraft inspections and fines in place, along with a public education campaign. Last year, the fine for blowing past an inspection site increased to $4,200 from $324. The fine went up to $600 from $180 for failing to remove a drain plug before transporting a watercraft on a roadway.
The government is putting $18 million over five years towards operating more inspection stations with increased staff and longer hours, hiring more canine detection teams and buying more decontamination equipment.
In 2024, government staff inspected 13,408 watercrafts — the most since 2019 — and 15 watercrafts were confirmed positive for invasive mussels.
The public also play a role, not only in policing themselves but in reporting contraventions, Hunter said. At Chin Reservoir, someone recently prevented an Ontario barge that was “fully mussel fouled” from entering the water, he said.
“They were about to launch this thing into the largest irrigation district in Canada.”
On a recent day at the Burmis inspection station in Crowsnest Pass, boater Brian Ogloff said the stops are a necessary inconvenience and he’s happy to comply.
“This is nothing new to us,” he said, standing beside his truck and recreational boat. “We’re from Bonnyville, near the Saskatchewan border. So we’re around the inspection stations all the time.”
But as far as support goes, he draws the line at shelling out for an annual pass.
“Unfortunately you need a licence to do anything in the world,” he said. “No, I don’t want to do that one. I pay enough. How much more does the government need?”
Hunter would likely sympathize with the sentiment. Still, he maintains that the annual pass is the way to go.
“I know people say we can be overprotective. I understand that. I believe in very small governments and having people make responsible decisions, that sort of thing,” he said. “However, in this situation, we cannot afford to have these mussels come in.”
He continued: “We're asking Albertans to work together. You know, for 75 years we've kept Alberta rat free. With confidence, I think we can do the same thing with this.”
Visit alberta.ca and search for “invasive species engagement” to take the survey.
