{"id":12639,"date":"2025-08-18T13:34:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/?p=12639"},"modified":"2026-03-04T10:05:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:05:42","slug":"bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Bootsma lab takes part in project to save Lake Michigan whitefish population"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Associate dean and professor Harvey Bootsma<\/a> and his lab are a small team that’s dedicated to a monumental task: finding a way to kill invasive quagga mussels that blanket the lake bottom and starve whitefish to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefish face collapse in lakes Michigan and Huron unless invasive mussels that are killing the fish are controlled. While scientists look for a miracle solution, they hope to aid whitefish by clearing mussels from spawning reefs. It\u2019s an effort powered by putty knives, tarps and a massive steel plate known as the \u2018mussel masher\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nRead Full Article<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate dean and professor Harvey Bootsma and his lab are a small team that’s dedicated to a monumental task: finding a way to kill invasive quagga mussels that blanket the lake bottom and starve whitefish to death. Whitefish face collapse …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38966,"featured_media":12640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[248,36,37],"tags":[77,79],"class_list":["post-12639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-news","category-research-impact","tag-freshwater-research","tag-freshwater-sciences"],"yoast_head":"\nSchool of Freshwater Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harvey Bootsma's lab team has been doing research on invasive quagga mussels and how to best kill them before they starve the whitefish.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bootsma lab takes part in project to save Lake Michigan whitefish population\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harvey Bootsma's lab team has been doing research on invasive quagga mussels and how to best kill them before they starve the whitefish.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"School of Freshwater Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-18T18:34:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-04T16:05:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/595\/2025\/08\/bootsma-bridge-michigan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bo Charles Bayerl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bo Charles Bayerl\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bo Charles Bayerl\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ec26f84f90f61d880be29c8db27db53\"},\"headline\":\"Bootsma lab takes part in project to save Lake Michigan whitefish population\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-18T18:34:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-04T16:05:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":108,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/595\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/bootsma-bridge-michigan.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"freshwater research\",\"freshwater sciences\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In The News\",\"News\",\"Research Impact\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/bootsma-mussels-lake-michigan\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bootsma part of project to save Lake Michigan whitefish population - 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