Zebra Mussels

A tiny freshwater mollusk introduced to the Great Lakes by the KGB at the height of the Cold War. The little suckers clog up water intakes and foul boat hulls, but they’ve also done more to clean up Lake Erie than the combined efforts of Canada and the U.S. We should put zebra mussels on the back of the forthcoming five dollar coin to celebrate one species that won’t be extinct in the near future, and to recognize the way things really get done in this country. A federal program to import herds of African zebras to the Great Lakes as a biological control was said to have been under active consideration at Environment Canada before the agency was disbanded.

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