Dishing up a Quagmire

While needed Federal ballast legislation spins and sputters in a political quagmire on Capitol Hill, invasive species continue to erode the Great Lakes ecosystem and affect everything from power plants to drinking water.

We have talked a lot about the dangerous and quickly replicating zebra mussels that arrived in the Great Lakes after hitching a ride in the ballast water of ocean going ships. But the zebra mussels’ nefarious reputation is being threatened by the quagga mussel. The quagga, that also booked passage from Europe in ballast water, is a more sophisticated breed and can live on almost any surface as well as in hot or cold water. The mussels are two of the 185 exotic or invasive species that live in the Great Lakes, the majority of which travelled to our fresh water in salty ballast tanks.

“Quagga mussels are probably the most ecologically significant perturbation that has ever been documented in Lake Michigan,” Gary Fahnenstiel, a senior ecologist at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, told the Muskegon Chronicle.

The mussels are now working as allies and have been able to conquer the middle of the food chain causing much damage to the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. So, in an attempt to reign in this terror, and in the absence of federal ballast legislation, HOW is issuing a challenge to leading Chefs in the Great Lakes cities of the US and Canada. Let’s have a great big summer cook off – your challenge is to dish up quagga and zebra mussels in iron chef fashion. By the end of the summer of 2008, we hope to make it into the pages of Bon Appetite and Cooks Illustrated using the bounty of invasive species from our precious Great Lakes.

The current culinary delight is to eat local what better way for us to use our local resources than to eat the obnoxious little invaders. Just look to the Yellow Perch – a decade ago, these fish would not consider eating the quagga, but recently they have found the prolific invaders more palatable. Heck, let’s create a recipe book of the best picks and send it to every member of Congress. Dishing up the quagga might be our only way to reduce the harmful effects of this invasive species. When life throws you lemons…

• Posted by Tiffany Danitz Pache on April 14th, 2008
• Tags: ballast-water, Ballast-Water-Management-Act-of-2007, Bush-Aministration, invasive-species, zebra-mussel
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