Historians are racing to locate Great Lakes shipwrecks before a seemingly unstoppable invasive mussel destroys them and erases part of the region's heritage.
This Aug. 17, 2021 photo shows Quagga mussels cover the engine of a Bell P-39 Airacobra military plane in Lake Huron, Mich., as maritime archaeologist Carrie Sowden, rear, documents the site. Archaeologists are scrambling to locate Great Lakes shipwrecks and downed planes before quagga mussels destroy them. – The Great Lakes’ frigid fresh water used to keep shipwrecks so well preserved that divers could see dishes in the cupboards.
Quagga mussels, finger-sized mollusks with voracious appetites, have become the dominant invasive species in the lower Great Lakes over the past 30 years, according to biologists. Unlike zebra mussels, quaggas are hungrier, hardier and more tolerant of colder temperatures. They devour plankton and other suspended nutrients, eliminating the base level of food chains. They consume so many nutrients at such high rates they can render portions of the murky Great Lakes as clear as tropical seas. And while zebra mussels prefer hard surfaces, quaggas can attach to soft surfaces at greater depths, enabling them to colonize even the lakes’ sandy bottoms.
That means the remains of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that went down in that lake during a storm in 1975 and was immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song,Lusardi, Michigan's state maritime archaeologist, ticked off a long list of shipwreck sites in the lower Great Lakes consumed by quaggas. “It has been completely colonized," he said."Twenty years ago, even 15 years ago, that site would have been clean. Now you can't even recognize the bell. You can't see the nameboard. If you brush those mussels off, it tears the wood off with it.”
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