Clean your boat, says B.C. official, as invasive Asian clam shells found in Shuswap Lake
Clams shells discovered on the lake's Salmon Arm
A provincial official is urging the public to take care not to spread an invasive species of clam between lakes and rivers, after Asian clam shells were found at Shuswap Lake in B.C.'s southern Interior.
The shells were collected by the Columbia Shuswap Invasive Species Society.
"The shells have been found in a couple of different locations in the Salmon Arm of the lake," said Sue Davies with the society.
"At this stage, it really is important to note that we've only found dead shells, which could have come there any way — it doesn't mean there's a live population," said Davies.
She said the group will continue monitoring the area to see if live Asian clams turn up.
The find would mark a spread of the invasive species, which has been in British Columbia since about 2008, but limited to the Fraser Valley and southern Vancouver Island.
According to Martina Beck, head of the Invasive Fauna Unit with B.C.'s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Asian clam spread to North America in the late 1930s when it arrived in Washington state.
Beck said the clams are often used in aquariums and one of the ways they spread is when people release them into the wild.
"Don't release your unwanted aquarium pets into the wild, because they can survive and establish — and potentially out-compete our native species," she said.
Beck said the Asian clams — which are also known as pygmy or golden clams — can rapidly reproduce, taking available food and habitat from other species, and also potentially clog water and irrigation pipes.
She said the little clams, with their yellowish and brownish shells, can't attach to solid surfaces like invasive zebra mussels, but they can still be spread between rivers and lakes by boaters.
Beck urges people to practice the "Clean, drain, dry" habit when boats are taken out of a body of water. The Asian clams can survive in mud or standing water.
She said provincial inspectors stationed along highways to look for zebra mussels are also keeping a lookout for the invasive clams.
With files from CBC's Daybreak South.