A new species of mussel has been spotted in the UK for the first time ever, posing a potential risk to the local water supply and endangering the environment and local wildlife.
The Quagga mussel has been found at Wraysbury reservoir, near Heathrow Airport, according to BBC News.
"The invasive alien Quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis), not yet established within Britain but anticipated to arrive within five years, has been identified as the top-ranking threat to our natural biodiversity," the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) predicted in a recent report. "It poses a high risk because it is an ecosystem engineer with the potential to disrupt the ecological function of freshwater environments."
Quagga mussels originate from Eastern Europe and researchers believe they could cause the death of "thousands" of native plants and animals.
According to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT) the Quagga assembles in large numbers, blocking pipes and causing flooding. Once established, it is almost impossible to eradicate from reservoirs.
"It is important that we take action to address the threats posed by invasive non-native species. Users of our waterways can help with this by checking their equipment and keeping it clean and dry," a spokesman from The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said to BBC News.
In the U.S., the Quagga is threatening to block off water supplies to Las Vegas, having formed colonies in the Hoover Dam, according to the International Business Times.
The Quagga was accidentally introduced to the U.S. after being sucked up in ballast water for ocean-going ships which arrived in the Great Lakes during the 1980s.
They can now be found in 29 states.
One Quagga lives for about five years, and produces five million eggs. Of those, approximately 100,000 will reach adulthood, so one Quagga can produce half a billion adult offspring, according to BBC News.
There are around 10 trillion Quagga near the Great Lakes.
Quagga mainly eat plankton, which reduces the food available to native fish. Though it isn't known how Quagga reached Wraysbury reservoir, the impact on the WWT's London Wetland Centre a few miles downstream could be devastating.
"These tiny mussels can be devastating but look so innocuous," said Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust spokesman Jeff Knott, according to IBTimes.com. "Quagga mussels are likely to indirectly cause suffering and death for hundreds of thousands of native animals, fish and plants and cost millions of pounds in tax and water bills to protect drinking water supplies."
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