Closing Report:
The first weekend we crused to the Thomas Wilson and performed the Monitoring on Quagga and Zebra Mussels. The visablity was only 25 feet and a little harder to navigate. We use wreck reels for guide lines to navigate around the ship.
This year we tried a few new things. One is we re-invented the hoop we use to count the mussels. We devided them both into 4 separate quadrants. It would make it much easier to count the mussels since they have increased substantially..
The second process we changed is how we mark the areas that we monitor each year. This year we marked areas by labeling theareas in which we count the mussels A - L. This process will help us a lot for keeping track of each area into the future of this project.
We also cleaned up the Garbage that seems to collect around the shipwreck. We think most of it is flowing down the river and ending up being caught by the fact that a structure is there for the garbage to hang up on.
We completed counting mussels in all the areas we designated. The results are that we noticed a substantial increase in Quagga Mussels and not so much increase in Zebra mussels.
Please review the date sheet provide to see for your self how much the invasive species have increased on the Thomas Wilson Shipwreck just 1.5 mile out of the Duluth entrance. Here is the link to the results of the project on a Data spread sheet.
Thank you to those that participated in the Thomas Wilson Invasive Species Monitoring and Clean up Project. We hope you dive and join us on next year's project.
Tim Pranke