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Historic Ship Brings Unwelcome Stowaways to Isle Royale National Park

A recent visit to Isle Royale National Park by the Niagara, a historically accurate reconstruction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's victorious 1813 flagship, included an unwelcome surprise. Despite efforts to prevent such problems, the ship was harboring some dangerous stowaways.

The ship is owned by the State of Pennsylvania’s Erie Historic Maritime Museum, "a nonprofit educational association striving to preserve and further the education of historic sailing techniques, environmental stewardship, and outreach education programs." It visited Isle Royale under terms of a special use permit that included some specific conditions: the ship would be free of aquatic invasive species, especially the zebra mussel.

As previous articles on the Traveler have explained, zebra mussels—and their relatives named quaggas—pose a serious threat to any body of water where they become established, and they have already caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in other parts of the country. Information from Isle Royale notes,
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Read entire article at National Parks Traveler