Mussels in the sand

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Pegasus

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I have heard for years from Lake Mead boaters that you HAVE to wear footwear when walking on the beaches or through the water near the beach as the mussels will cut your feet up bad. Personally, I've cut my fingers when feeling the bottom of my boat and running into a mussel, but so far have not had foot cuts. Well, I took the photo below today on a sandy beach at LP - all of the white you see in the photo are dead mussel shells that will surely cut feet when the water comes back up! This particular beach was currently about 20 ft above the current water level.
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Squirrel said:
Those look more like clams than zebra or quagga mussels. Sq
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I agree that they look bleached. If there weren't mussels covering the rocks on both sides of the beach that were also bleached I might think clam shells also, and I guess they still could be clam shells but I don't think so.
 
The color and size looks like Asian clam shells. The numbers look like mussels. If you get back there, take another picture of the shells up close and I can tell you for sure.

Asian Clams are 3 - 4 times as big as QM


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4164Quagga mussel
 
wayne gustaveson said:
The color and size looks like Asian clam shells. The numbers look like mussels. If you get back there, take another picture of the shells up close and I can tell you for sure.

Asian Clams are 3 - 4 times as big as QM


View attachment 4163



View attachment 4164Quagga mussel
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I hiked over and took a few more photos. The shells are the same shells as the thousands attached to the rocks, they have just fallen down into the sand. Here is a good photo. What do you think?
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Gem Morris said:
I think some one on here said that once they dry out above the water line they basically disintegrate when touched? Turn to powder?
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Yes, they do turn to dust when they are dried out and you touch them. But, I still wouldn't want to walk over a dead-mussel beach without shoes on. Another interesting thing about the mussels is when you're hiking around the shore, and you see a rock face covered in them. When the wind blows, the dangling mussels sound like wind chimes. Still, they are the scourge of Powell.

Tiff
 
Pegasus said:
I hiked over and took a few more photos. The shells are the same shells as the thousands attached to the rocks, they have just fallen down into the sand. Here is a good photo. What do you think?
View attachment 4176
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No question - Quagga mussels! The numbers argument carried the day. It is so sad that we have to deal with these varmints on the shores of beautiful Lake Powell. Wear your beach shoes!
 
jimmybame said:
Crazy I spent a week in Lake Havasu and the mussels aren’t near as bad as Lake Powell
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Annual water fluctuation at Lake Havasu is 4 feet per year. There is brush around the shoreline that is always there. They have warmer water temperatures in the summer with the warmest summer surface temperature rising to 88 F which killed all mussels from the surface to 18 feet deep. So their mussel population is in deeper water. Still a problem but a completely different situation than we find at Lake Powell.
 
To bad we couldn’t keep lake Powell up in the bushes and very little fluctuations. I know, since I’ve seen them a few times, that tules would grow on the shoreline. Of course that is my biased opinion as I want the bass fishing to be as great as it can be and cover helps improve it. As an added benefit we could send those ugly mussels down to the depths, in Davey Jones locker. Or would it be Wayne Gustaveson’s locker? 😃
 
TYme2Fish said:
To bad we couldn’t keep lake Powell up in the bushes and very little fluctuations. I know, since I’ve seen them a few times, that tules would grow on the shoreline. Of course that is my biased opinion as I want the bass fishing to be as great as it can be and cover helps improve it. As an added benefit we could send those ugly mussels down to the depths, in Davey Jones locker. Or would it be Wayne Gustaveson’s locker? 😃
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I am for hoping Wayne doesn't find his locker for a VERY VERY LONG TIME. I kind a like having him around.
 
TYme2Fish said:
To bad we couldn’t keep lake Powell up in the bushes and very little fluctuations. I know, since I’ve seen them a few times, that tules would grow on the shoreline. Of course that is my biased opinion as I want the bass fishing to be as great as it can be and cover helps improve it. As an added benefit we could send those ugly mussels down to the depths, in Davey Jones locker. Or would it be Wayne Gustaveson’s locker? 😃
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I would be glad to put all the mussels in a box with no escape possible, never to bee seen again. That would make it a lot easier for fish to thrive.
 
I boat at least 30 days each summer on Lake Mead. (I miss my houseboat week on Lake Powell! I digress....) Last summer and the two years before that, the water level has hovered between 1080 and 1090 (down 120-130' from full pool.) In my favorite coves straight north of Boulder beach, most of the quagga are still stuck on rocks (seldom free in the sand) starting at just above the 1090' elevation. You can't find any intact remnants on boulders or in the sand at the current level. MY GUESS is the shells are so fragile that once the mussels die, the wind waves and sand crush them into dust.
 
I have seen the same situation at Lake Mead. We go out of Temple Bar and head East and North to South Cove.
 
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