Quebec town putting Lake Massawippi at risk of mussel invasion, says conservationist

A conservation organization in Quebec's Eastern Townships says the municipality of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley is not doing its part to protect Lake Massawippi from a zebra mussel invasion.

The invasive species was discovered in the lake in October of last year, and is threatening the local ecosystem as well as its water intake infrastructure.

In a letter sent to the media, Bleu Massawippi condemned Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley for opening up its boat ramp on May 2.

Only residents are allowed to use the ramp, and they must wash their boats before launching them into the water.

But according to the organization, boaters are taking advantage of the lack of supervision at the ramp, and are illegally sharing the keys that unlock the gate to the ramp.

As a result, people are entering the lake with unwashed watercraft that could be carrying zebra mussel eggs, said Philippe-David Blanchette, one of the organization's directors.

"We're outraged by that," he said, especially since they thought the mayor was onboard with measures to protect the lake.

Blanchette said he is especially frustrated because he and his team have been working relentlessly to prevent the species from spreading and stop the invasion while it is still in its infancy.

"We've worked so hard during the winter," he said. "We're diving, we're collecting the data, people around the lake just gave us the money."

Blanchette said Bleu Massawippi and the municipalities around the lake met last fall and all agreed to prioritize this issue, including making sure all the watercraft entering the lake is washed.

He said the mayor Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, Jacques Demers, has been difficult to reach since then.

Mayor denies lack of oversight

Demers says he is shocked by the allegations.

He said his municipality has given the same amount of funding as all the other municipalities on the lake to fight the mussel invasion.

"For us it's really important to protect the lake," he said.

Demers also denied that the access to the boat ramp in his town is a free-for-all.

He said the municipality has put some preventive measures in place, like blocking the ramp with a metal gate and using a special key that can't be duplicated by a locksmith. The lock was also changed three years ago, he said.

The mayor explained that keys are only given to people who have a boat registered to their name and who live in town.

"They have to wash their boats like everybody else," he said. "And if ever they were caught on the water for not having washed their boats, they would be fined."

No one from the municipality of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley is stationed to patrol the ramp or the lake. Demers said the provincial police and the Memphrémagog police are responsible for patrolling the lake and can intervene at any time.

But according to Blanchette, it's rare that patrol boats are actually on the lake to check.

Cautious optimism

While the mussels have grown a bit since last year, they didn't spread as much as the conservationists feared, Blanchette said.

"The possibility to control the invasion is still alive," he said. "If we had waited, the invasion would've [taken off] and we wouldn't have been able to do anything."

He said once that happens, the zebra mussels take over the lake bed to a point where it's impossible to walk into the water anymore.

"You might end up with some zebra mussels in your chalet because they just get into the water intakes."

Other risks include excessive algae and weed bloom due to the mussels over-filtering the water. They also eat plankton that the native fish feed on.

Laurence Langevin, one of the divers involved in the operation of removing the baby mussels from the lake, said she remains optimistic.

Just last week, she and the other divers collected some 600 mussels, which she said is a relatively small number compared to nearby lakes.

"As a diver, we don't want to find them. But when we find them, we can collect them so they're not there anymore."

Langevin explained that the mussels currently in the lake are too young and too small to spread eggs, so removing them manually is an effective way to get rid of them.

Once the mussels are collected, they are put in a freezer where they are kept for research purposes.

"We have a fighting chance actually of winning this right now," she said. "But for that to happen, people need to be vigilant about washing their boats, kayaks, and paddle boards."