A new invasive species to
A new invasive species to be on the lookout for: the Asian green mussel.
The saltwater mussel “reproduces fast and early and grows huge. It can sink navigational buoys and floating docks. It has 10 times the biomass of any other buildup on a hull. One of these mussels at 6 inches is equivalent to, I don’t know, 20 or 30 barnacles,” said David Knott, S.C. Department of Natural Resources marine biologist.
And it doesn’t take them a year to reach that size – in large numbers.
The mussels “have the potential to be the greatest concern among any marine or coastal invasive animal. People are going to have to pay to do maintenance for it,” Knott said. “An invasive species gets attention when it costs somebody money.”