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Comment by xyzzy_plugh | Hacker News Reader

I spent some of my youth on a lake absolutely overrun with zebra mussels. You couldn't even see any sand, just shells. It sucked.

Nearly 15 years later, they're all gone. I don't know why. No one on the lake needs to use water shoes and the beaches are beautiful.

I understand that zebra mussels suck and are terrible for the great lakes, but do we understand the long term repurcussions?

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I'm guessing the zebra mussels died as their food source became less common. I was a bio major, and there's a name for the population collapse that happens when a species gets access to a new food source, grows quickly, and then collapses, but I forgot what it is.

I'll have to look at my population dynamics book later to see if I can remember.

Overshoot and collapse, most likely.

Bingo. I couldn't remember overshoot for the life of me.

Pardon me. I am clueless about Biology.

By collapse, you mean all dead & extinct in the lake? As in, there is 0% chance of them returning from the dead like the eggs that are laid which is start growing once there is new food source?

If the zebra mussel are all dead, would it be possible to transplant a family of fish from some other lake, so they can start a life in Lake Michigan and bring it back to life?

I caught about 20, ~8lbs. lake trout on Lake Michigan last summer. The lake is not literally dead.

For the last 3 summers, my family and I have gone salmon fishing with a charter company [1] in Lake Michigan near Algoma, WI. Each year we've caught ~15-20 fish. From my limited experience I have to agree with you.

[1]: http://kinnskatch.com/

I think the name is western civilization

Nope. We know they're invasive and that they upset the balance the Lakes are used to. We have to assume that's not great but we're all just trying to do what we can to not upset the Apple cart.

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