They might have found a way to fight zebra and quagga mussels...:)

[wakina]

True.

However the walleye and other fish populations did not decrease sharply as was originally feared. The walleye population doesn't seem to be greatly impacted by the mussels. The mussels are here to stay, at least for now. Many would say the benefits have out weighed the costs. Doesn't really matter, we have to deal with them until maybe at some time a viable means is found to get rid of them, but if it is should we do it?

Gobies and other invasive species are just as much a threat to native fish populations. If the "flying Carp" ever get into the Great Lakes look out. That could be a real disaster.

Any invasive species (gobies, Asian carp or mussels) is detrimental to the ecosystem of Lake Erie! I have no way of knowing for sure and neither do you, if the mussels have impacted the overall fish populations of Lake Erie.

Common sense dictates that if an invasive species eats the same foods that the larval stage of the species of fish native to Lake Erie also relies on for survival, and in the quantity that they eat those foods, enough so that the consumption of that food changes the water clarity of the lake, then there most likely has been a negative impact on the recruitment of those larval native species of fish into the fishery. In other words at least some of those larval native species have starved to death and were never recruited into the fishery due specifically to the presence of the invasive species, in this case the mussels.

Please don't sugar coat the fact that they do not belong here and just because the worse case predictions did not come true, that they have not impacted the overall fish populations of lake Erie. True they did clear up the water but clearer does not necessarily mean cleaner or better water quality.