Don't you usually think of going to the ocean when you are looking for shells? But, naturalist Charlie Browne and I found a ton of them right here on a beach on Lake Champlain!
"Well, our lakes have lots of native mollusks, like fresh water clams, fresh water mussels, and beautiful little snails of several different kinds, and sometimes we find masses of their shells washed up on the shore."
"I have seen these fresh water clams before, mostly out in very sandy bottom areas out in Mallets Bay, but you can't eat these can you?"
"I wouldn't! But there's wildlife that eats them, sure! Muskrats love them."
There are fresh water clams, several types of tiny little snails, and some smaller mussels that are very pretty.
"We do have zebra mussels in the lake, and they are really creating ecological havoc here. They are an invasive exotic species, they haven't been in the states for more than 25 years, and they are exploding their populations right here. They are very pretty shells, but in fact they mass up, and clog intake and outtake pipes for water systems, and they coat surfaces underwater throughout the lake system. So we do find many, many zebra mussel shells along the lake here as well. And we can take a look at an example at how they bunch together in just piles."
They may be pretty, but they are a big problem in Lake Champlain.
