Caitlin
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E Unio Plurum and stream health is just one of them!
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/10/22/ddn102306wildmussels.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=16
Wild things returning
By Steve Bennish
Staff Writer
COLUMBUS — Mussels line up like living dominoes in the beds of waterways throughout Ohio. They live well in healthy water. They die in polluted, diseased or disturbed water.
As such, they are among the best indicators of stream health and are imperiled in Ohio.
Mussel beds range in size from a few feet to many acres. The animals clean river water by filtering it for nutrients they need to survive. Pollution, runoff from development and coal mines, and dams hammer their population.
The mussel's desirability in Asia's cultured pearl industry is another reason for the decline. Poachers keep wildlife law enforcement officers vigilant. Bits of mussel shell, inserted into Pacific oysters, are used to form cultured pearls.
Ohio boasts 80 species of freshwater mussels. Six are extinct, 14 are vanished from the state because of pollution or other issues and 25 are endangered — the largest number of federally endangered species in Ohio.
It is illegal to remove mussels — even their empty shells — from any Ohio waterway. Estimates suggest that two-thirds of North America's nearly 300 mussel species are in danger.
Ohio State research
Enter Thomas Watters, curator of mollusks for Ohio State University. He's the author of a 158-page tome with an ungainly title — An Annotated Bibliography of the Reproduction and Propagation of the Unionoidea, primarily of North America. It's a critical review of mussel research from 1695. OSU's freshwater mussel collection includes 500,000 specimens with some specimens dating to the 1800s.
He works at the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Freshwater Mussel Conservation and Research Center, a former recreational lodge tucked into a 32-acre peninsula of the Scioto River. His mission is to reintroduce the creatures to their native environments in waterways where water quality is improving.
The lodge was refurbished as a research center in 2002 and is now a place of swirling waters pumped from the Scioto into rows of gravel-filled aquariums that host more than 800 mussels from 50 species, including many endangered animals. There are fewer than 10 such facilities in North America, Watters said.
There have been no reintroductions yet, but mussels from the research center were added to Big Darby Creek in June when Watters released dozens of darters carrying endangered northern riffle shell larvae.
Reintroductions here?
In the Miami Valley, it's possible that the small rayed bean could be reintroduced here some day. So far, state officials are focused on augmenting existing populations. In 2007, Watters said he'll augment more northern riffle mussel populations as well as endangered club shell mussels.
"We're breaking new ground all the time," he said. "With the proper support and education, many of these species can be turned around."
There are trends favoring reintroduction. Improved sewage treatment and use of retention ponds for runoff help. Low dams, once popular as a means to slow down water for anglers, are being removed throughout the nation in favor of more natural flows that favor watercraft, fish — and mussel propagation. The Springfield Conservancy District is considering removing dams along Buck Creek to make it more amenable to canoes and kayaks.
"You impound a river for navigation or flood control, the mussels can't hack it," Watters said.
Danger to mussels
Disasters of all kinds threaten surviving populations. In January 2005, Ohio River floods caused a barge to ram a large dam at Belleville, W.Va., exposing mussel beds to the frozen air. They were in danger of freezing to death. A massive volunteer rescue effort saved thousands of them, and many ended up in Watters' care.
Then there are poachers. They are especially active on the Lower Muskingum, which has the largest mussel beds in Ohio.
"They harvest them at an incredible rate," said Watters, who serves as an expert in mussel rustling cases for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Mussel rustlers don wet suits in the dead of night and, carrying feed bags, creep along mussel beds. After stuffing the clams into their sacks, they usually flee across the state line before dawn.
Recent case
That seems to have been the plan of three Tennessee men arrested in May after they gathered 1,763 pounds of mussels from the Muskingum.
The theft unraveled when a Marietta police officer spied a man in a wet suit in a hotel parking lot at 4 a.m. on May 11 and called state wildlife officials. Wildlife officers seized 17 bags containing 2,386 mussels. All were returned to the river in an attempt to save them.
Watters, who assisted with the investigation, identified 14 of the confiscated mussels as endangered species.
Tom Donnelly, law enforcement supervisor for the division of wildlife, estimated the potential haul was worth $4,000. He said the thieves might have gotten away had they not stopped at the hotel to take a shower.
In June, they were convicted after an investigation by the ODNR Division of Wildlife. They pleaded no contest to illegally harvesting mussels. Two were convicted on five counts, fined $3,000 plus court costs and served 11 days in jail; the third was found guilty on five counts, fined $2,000 plus court costs and served 33 days in jail.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/10/22/ddn102306wildmussels.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=16
Wild things returning
By Steve Bennish
Staff Writer
COLUMBUS — Mussels line up like living dominoes in the beds of waterways throughout Ohio. They live well in healthy water. They die in polluted, diseased or disturbed water.
As such, they are among the best indicators of stream health and are imperiled in Ohio.
Mussel beds range in size from a few feet to many acres. The animals clean river water by filtering it for nutrients they need to survive. Pollution, runoff from development and coal mines, and dams hammer their population.
The mussel's desirability in Asia's cultured pearl industry is another reason for the decline. Poachers keep wildlife law enforcement officers vigilant. Bits of mussel shell, inserted into Pacific oysters, are used to form cultured pearls.
Ohio boasts 80 species of freshwater mussels. Six are extinct, 14 are vanished from the state because of pollution or other issues and 25 are endangered — the largest number of federally endangered species in Ohio.
It is illegal to remove mussels — even their empty shells — from any Ohio waterway. Estimates suggest that two-thirds of North America's nearly 300 mussel species are in danger.
Ohio State research
Enter Thomas Watters, curator of mollusks for Ohio State University. He's the author of a 158-page tome with an ungainly title — An Annotated Bibliography of the Reproduction and Propagation of the Unionoidea, primarily of North America. It's a critical review of mussel research from 1695. OSU's freshwater mussel collection includes 500,000 specimens with some specimens dating to the 1800s.
He works at the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Freshwater Mussel Conservation and Research Center, a former recreational lodge tucked into a 32-acre peninsula of the Scioto River. His mission is to reintroduce the creatures to their native environments in waterways where water quality is improving.
The lodge was refurbished as a research center in 2002 and is now a place of swirling waters pumped from the Scioto into rows of gravel-filled aquariums that host more than 800 mussels from 50 species, including many endangered animals. There are fewer than 10 such facilities in North America, Watters said.
There have been no reintroductions yet, but mussels from the research center were added to Big Darby Creek in June when Watters released dozens of darters carrying endangered northern riffle shell larvae.
Reintroductions here?
In the Miami Valley, it's possible that the small rayed bean could be reintroduced here some day. So far, state officials are focused on augmenting existing populations. In 2007, Watters said he'll augment more northern riffle mussel populations as well as endangered club shell mussels.
"We're breaking new ground all the time," he said. "With the proper support and education, many of these species can be turned around."
There are trends favoring reintroduction. Improved sewage treatment and use of retention ponds for runoff help. Low dams, once popular as a means to slow down water for anglers, are being removed throughout the nation in favor of more natural flows that favor watercraft, fish — and mussel propagation. The Springfield Conservancy District is considering removing dams along Buck Creek to make it more amenable to canoes and kayaks.
"You impound a river for navigation or flood control, the mussels can't hack it," Watters said.
Danger to mussels
Disasters of all kinds threaten surviving populations. In January 2005, Ohio River floods caused a barge to ram a large dam at Belleville, W.Va., exposing mussel beds to the frozen air. They were in danger of freezing to death. A massive volunteer rescue effort saved thousands of them, and many ended up in Watters' care.
Then there are poachers. They are especially active on the Lower Muskingum, which has the largest mussel beds in Ohio.
"They harvest them at an incredible rate," said Watters, who serves as an expert in mussel rustling cases for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Mussel rustlers don wet suits in the dead of night and, carrying feed bags, creep along mussel beds. After stuffing the clams into their sacks, they usually flee across the state line before dawn.
Recent case
That seems to have been the plan of three Tennessee men arrested in May after they gathered 1,763 pounds of mussels from the Muskingum.
The theft unraveled when a Marietta police officer spied a man in a wet suit in a hotel parking lot at 4 a.m. on May 11 and called state wildlife officials. Wildlife officers seized 17 bags containing 2,386 mussels. All were returned to the river in an attempt to save them.
Watters, who assisted with the investigation, identified 14 of the confiscated mussels as endangered species.
Tom Donnelly, law enforcement supervisor for the division of wildlife, estimated the potential haul was worth $4,000. He said the thieves might have gotten away had they not stopped at the hotel to take a shower.
In June, they were convicted after an investigation by the ODNR Division of Wildlife. They pleaded no contest to illegally harvesting mussels. Two were convicted on five counts, fined $3,000 plus court costs and served 11 days in jail; the third was found guilty on five counts, fined $2,000 plus court costs and served 33 days in jail.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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