All right. So today we're diving into, uh, some pretty concerning news about invasive species. You know, those zebra and quagga mussels that we've been talking about.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Well, get ready for something even worse.

Okay.

The golden mussel. It just showed up in North America.

First time.

Yeah, for the first time, and specifically in the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, and this is a big deal.

I mean, we already know how much damage the zebra and guaga mussels can do. So what makes this golden mussel even more of a threat, I guess, is what we're trying to figure out today, especially for our local reservoirs that we all use and love.

Right. I think what makes the golden mussel so much scarier than those other two is that it's just a lot better at everything.

Yeah. It's better at surviving in different environments. Oh, really? Um, and it reproduces really quickly and it just takes over an ecosystem in a way that the zebra and quagga mussels haven't been able to do.

Okay, so before we get too deep into the doom and gloom, can we take a step back for a second and just describe what this golden mussel actually looks like?

Mmm. You know, for those of us who haven't encountered one yet.

Yeah, sure. So picture a small mussel, like under an inch and a half long, with a shell that's kind of golden or brownish. Okay. And it's not like a bright, shiny gold. It's more of a, like a dull, kind of brassy color. Got it. And they like to attach themselves to hard surfaces, you know, rocks and stuff like that.

And they can be found in freshwater or brackish water. So pretty much any body of water is fair game.

Right.

But what's really alarming is how many of them there can be in one spot.

Oh yeah, I was reading about that 200, 000 mussels per square meter, is that right?

Yeah, you read that right. It's insane.

That's a lot of mussels.

It is. Imagine like a square meter on the floor of a lake or a reservoir and it's just completely covered with these mussels.

Yeah, that's a scary thought.

Yeah, and they're not just sitting there looking pretty either. They're constantly filtering water and eating everything in sight.