ANN ARBOR, MICH. (WKBW) — Mussels have been showing their strength by causing various problems in the Great Lakes, now three organizations are hoping an intergovernmental body can fix them.
On Monday, the Great Lakes Commission, International Joint Commission, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission announced their endorsement for Invasive Mussel Collaborative (IMC).
The goal of the IMC according to the organizations is to, address the negative impacts of invasive mussels across the Great Lakes Basin.
The three organizations aim to have the IMC show its progress on a regular basis to both the United States and Canada under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
John Linc Stine, chair of the Great Lakes Commission and executive director of the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Freshwater says regarding the IMC, "[it is] one of our many efforts to bring the right people together in the best way to tackle the biggest issues facing the Great Lakes.”
The main issue here? Two types of mussels the zebra mussels and the quagga mussels have been hurting the ecosystem of the Great Lakes Basin since the 1980s, thus the goal is to prevent the mussels from spreading further and prevent future damage.
The Invasive Mussel Collaborative was established in 2015.
