Biological Field Station director Dr. Willard Harman said this week that zebra mussels are headed downstream in the Susquehanna River on the start of a more than 400-mile journey toward the Chesapeake Bay.

The zebra mussels bypassed the Otsego Lake headwaters of the Susquehanna River, entering instead by way of Canadarago Lake and Oaks Creek.

Harman said the mussel, a native of the Black Sea region which has caused economic and environmental harm where it has gained a foothold, was first discovered in Canadarago Lake by field station personnel in 2002.

Zebra mussel expert Dr. Tom Horvath had just joined the staff of the field station before the discovery and expressed concerns for the river, which had been free of the invasive exotic species.

"Now, zebra mussels have direct access along the river which passes through Binghamton and both Wilkes Barre and Harrisburg, Pa., and into Maryland," Horvath said.

Following the discovery of the larval forms of the mussel - called veligers - by field station staff members while sampling for plankton, a dive team verified the existence of a breeding population spread throughout Canadarago Lake.

"You usually don't run across them until there is a substantial foothold in a lake," Horvath said.

Harman explained Tuesday that the mussels spread by distributing hundreds of thousands of veligers into the water, which are carried on the currents.

He said that last summer the mussel was found in Oaks Creek near the outlet of Canadarago Lake and were beginning to reach the Susquehanna River at the lower end of the creek.

Last week, Harman said, a group of summer interns under the supervision of Horvath and Matt Albright found adults as far south as Toddsville in Oaks Creek.

Mike Gray, a graduate student in SUNY Oneonta's biology program working at the field station, found veligers in Goodyear Lake and in the Susquehanna as far south as Colliersville, he added.

Harman said there are no veligers upstream from the point Oakes Creek enters the Susquehanna or in Otsego Lake.

The chances are pretty slim they will spread upstream," he said. "The most likely way they may find their way to Otsego Lake is the same way they got into Canadarago - on the boats of recreational lake users."

Harman said he didn't believe the mussels being in the river would make much difference to Otsego Lake, except that it means recreational boaters in the area need to be vigilant about not inadvertently transporting the mussel to other waters.

It is people who are moving it about, added Harman, and boat washing can reduce that considerably. The mussel easily attaches itself to lake weeds and plants which can be caught on the boat trailer or propeller and introduced to another lake the next time the boat is launched. But what is of more concern to Harman is the veliger stage when the mussel is microscopic and can exist in bilge water or bait buckets. He suggests that the easiest and cheapest remedy is to wash the boat with salt water. Boaters can also drain or remove all water and let the boat dry out totally in the full sun.

The discovery of the zebra mussel prompted the village to begin a boat washing program in an effort to keep the exotic species out of the lake. To date, the program has been successful.

The mussels will continue to move downstream and can travel many miles on the current. Many of those starting the journey from Canadarago Lake will not survive the trip, but enough will to colonize a new area and move on from there in a sort of leap frog manner until they reach Chesapeake Bay.

There are implications for water users downstream, however. One of the biggest economic impacts zebra mussels have is to clog pipes such as water intakes. Municipal water systems may have problems with the mussels as could those people drawing water from the river for irrigation.

Harman there is really nothing standing in the way of the mussel as it moves downstream and that people have been expecting it to eventually find its way into the river.

"In our minds it was only a matter of time before it made its way to the river basin," Susan O'Bleski, Director of Communications for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission located in Harrisburg, Pa., said two years ago

She said the commission's role will be primarily informational and that they are now notifying water users along the river that they should be on the lookout for the mussel in the future.