Tune In, Turn Mussels Out - Tangled Line

Boat/US Magazine, Jan, 2002

Most parents of teenagers would agree that what's heard on the radio these days is a real killer. But researchers at Purdue University have found that certain radio waves will actually kill harmful zebra mussels. An experiment which exposed several fish tanks full of zebra mussels to low-energy radio waves killed the mollusks within 40 days. Apparently the radio waves caused the mussels to surrender the calcium they need for survival.

Other organisms in the tanks, such as crabs and other freshwater mussels, experienced significantly less harm than the zebras, and fish within the tank were not harmed at all. Matthew Ryan, a chemist involved with the project warns that the radio waves cannot rid the Great Lakes of the mussels, but can prevent them from settling into intake pipes.