Two years after the highly invasive golden mussel was first discovered at the Port of Stockton, California officials say they are struggling to get the outbreak under control. In that time the mussels have spread all around the San Joaquin Delta, and authorities are now searching for ways to at least slow the invasion down.
One of the most striking signs of the problem is the water itself. Tony Faso, who has been in the boating business for 23 years, says he had never been able to see the fish swimming near the shores of the Delta until now. He calls it sad to say, noting the water was never this clear before, because the mussels filter it so heavily.
That clarity is a warning sign of the invasion happening below the surface. Hundreds of thousands of golden mussels are filtering the water while wreaking havoc on critical infrastructure. The mussel is described as tiny but mighty, multiplying fast and nearly impossible to get rid of, with colonies already coating boats, piers and pipelines.
Among the biggest concerns is the threat the mussels pose to the region's water systems. Officials point to a 24 inch pipe that feeds half of the agricultural market, the kind of infrastructure the colonies can build up on and clog as they keep multiplying across the waterways.
Faso, who owns the Delta Marine Yacht Center, hauls boats daily across the web of waterways around the region, which gives him a front row view of how widely the mussels are turning up in different environments. He says it is a concentrated way to gather a lot of data quickly, simply through his normal course of business.
He is also part of a county committee trying to find ways to combat the invasive mollusk, stressing that the big push is for more data and for people to do small things to help. One of his current jobs is testing an ultrasonic transducer that sends pulses along a surface to deter the mussels from attaching, a method he is trying to prove out on agricultural infrastructure. As one official put it, he does not want to call it a foregone conclusion that the mussels cannot be stopped, but a way has to be found to slow them down.