(Spirit Lake)—Officials are spotting another critter in the Iowa Great Lakes not typically seen here. John Wills of the Cleanwater Alliance says they’ve been seeing a form of what’s known as cleanwater sponges in several of the Iowa Great Lakes. And unlike some things that have been spotted recently, such as zebra mussels, Wills says seeing the sponges is actually a GOOD thing…(click here for comment.) “It’s a native critter that’s making a resurgence. You know we’ve had some really spectacularly clean water, clear water this spring, and it’s just now starting to be where we’ve got some algae blooms, poor water color, and stuff like that. So I think these things probably have been around, we just haven’t been able to find any.”
Wills says several factors are likely behind the abnormally clear water most of the Iowa Great Lakes have been experiencing so far this summer that’s resulted in the freshwater sponges…(click here for comment.) “Well I think a lot of it has to do with we didn’t get hit with the heavy rainfalls that a lot of the rest of the state had. We did have rain that got farmers out of the field and such and kept us in the house instead of on the lake enjoying the water. But we didn’t get it to the extent that a lot of places did and the other thing is our year last year was so dry very little runoff went into the lakes. So I think a little of a combination, maybe a perfect storm, but in a good way. We see a lot of things happening this year that we normally don’t. A lot of vegetation growing and different things that we normally don’t see especially in Upper Gar, Lower Gar and those kinds of places. But it’s all a GOOD thing.”
Wills says the sponges are also good in that they serve as a food source for aquatic invertebrates.
