{"id":684987,"date":"2026-05-21T21:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/684987\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T21:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:47:09","slug":"bc-monitors-invasive-mussel-triggering-cali-emergencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/684987\/","title":{"rendered":"BC monitors invasive mussel triggering Cali emergencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Published on May. 21, 2026, 4:15 PM<\/p>\n<p>The species has not yet been detected in Canada, but B.C. officials are monitoring the situation following emergency declarations in at least two California counties.<\/p>\n<p>Golden mussels are causing major problems in California, with at least two counties declaring local emergencies due to infestations.<\/p>\n<p>The mussels, originally from Asia, were first discovered in California in 2024, believed to be the first North American detection, and have been spreading rapidly ever since.<\/p>\n<p>The population boom is partly due to a lack of natural predators, combined with a rapid breeding cycle, with adults able to produce up to <a href=\"https:\/\/harder.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/golden-mussel-news-harder-announces-new-legislation-to-stop-invasion-of-stinky-sludge-spouting-golden-mussels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">1 million offspring each year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Because the species reproduces in such large numbers, it can quickly colonize pipes, boating equipment, and other hard surfaces, causing costly infrastructure damage.<\/p>\n<p>Not only do they spread fast, but they also spread far, and are capable of increasing their range by upwards of <a href=\"https:\/\/mavensnotebook.com\/2025\/02\/05\/delta-isb-new-threat-in-the-delta-golden-mussels-join-the-ranks-of-invasive-species\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">240 kilometres annually<\/a>, carried to new locations via boating equipment and through sand transported to other areas for beach replenishment projects.<\/p>\n<p>A resilient species<\/p>\n<p>Another concern is that golden mussels are more tolerant of calcium, temperature, and salinity levels than other invasive mussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on May. 21, 2026, 4:15 PM The species has not yet been detected in Canada, but B.C.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-684987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}