CURTIS ANTHONY BOZIF

This series of paintings is informed by the shells of dead zebra and quagga mussels that wash up and accumulate in immense piles along many of the beaches of the Great Lakes.

Dreissena polymorpha is the Latin name for the zebra mussel. A freshwater filter feeding invasive species originally native to lakes of Southern Russia and Ukraine. Introduced by accident sometime in the 1980s by way of the ballast water in ocean going bulk freighters, zebra mussels, along with the closely related quagga mussel, have been the cause of many cascading negative effects to the ecosystem and economy of the Great Lakes. Recent studies have shown that quagga mussels now dominate Lake Michigan at an estimated 7,790 mussels per square meter. They have been found at depths of up to 540 feet. Dreissenid mussels’ rapacious filter feeding results in both exceptionally clear water, which human swimmers enjoy, but also the near total collapse of phytoplankton communities, the foundation of the Great Lakes food web. The alarming decrease in phytoplankton numbers has contributed to the dramatic collapse in fish populations that were already struggling because of the introduction of other non-native species such as the sea lamprey and round goby.

To learn more about invasive species of the Great Lakes, see Dan Egan’s book, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes or Lake Invaders: Invasive Species and the Battle for the Future of the Great Lakes, by William Rapai. Please support local independent book sellers.