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Today we're coming to you from the Potomac River.
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Conservation
Connect.
My name is Chelsea McKinney, your host
as we explore all types of conservation
careers, new animals, and different types of technology
that conservation professionals use to help and study wildlife.
Today we're coming to you from the Potomac
River, the same one that flows through Washington, DC.
Right now we're about 70 miles northwest
of the capital on this warm sunny day.
This river is home to lots of wildlife.
We have deer, raccoons, geese, and osprey
that all use the waters of the Potomac.
But below the water there are even more fascinating
creatures.
Certainly the river has lots of fish,
but there are also other less obvious animals
that are just as important-- the mussels.
But I'm talking to you about these kinds of muscles,
I'm talking to you about a special group of animals
called the freshwater mussels.
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Joining us today we have our freshwater mussel expert,
Matthew Patterson, from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Matthew, can you tell us a little bit
about the freshwater mussel?
Sure.
Freshwater mussels are closely related
to things like clams and oysters that you might get in a seafood
restaurant or somewhere.
But they live in fresh water like the Potomac River here.
I just brought a few examples to look at.
They have kind of funny names, too.
This one is called a pink heel splitter.
You can see the pink coloration on the inside of the shell.
And the reason it's called a heel splitter
is because it sits in the river bottom like this
and it has this wing that sticks up.
And if you're walking along and you step on that--
That could hurt.
Could hurt, for sure.
This one is a little bit smaller.
It's called a pimple back.
You can notice all the pimples on the back.
So they've got some kind of funny names.
This one is a rabbit's foot, sort
of looks like a rabbit's foot a little bit.
And then they can be really small and really colorful.
You can see those are called chevrons
on the outside, the green rays on the shell-- very pretty.
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Why are these freshwater mussels so important?
They're really important because they live
in the bottom of the stream.
They can be there in very large numbers
and they're filter feeders and they're
really good at filtering water.
So they're taking out things like bacteria and viruses
and contaminants out of the water
to protect not only us, as people,
but also other animals that live in the stream.
Now, many populations of the freshwater mussels
have become threatened or endangered.
Why is that?
It's a lot of different factors, but the primary one
is habitat loss.
A lot of streams in the United States
have been impounded or damned for hydropower or navigation.
And mussels like really fast moving water, so damning it up
causes a problem for them.
Another issue-- and actually, we just
pulled these right out of the Potomac
here-- is invasive species.
And this is an Asian clam.
And you can see just picking up quite a few just
in one handful.
And these invasive species, they're
also filter feeders so they can compete with mussels for food.
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Now, what's being done to help the mussels
and how is technology playing a role in that?
Well, several agencies including the Fish and Wildlife Service
have facilities where they grow baby
mussels in the laboratory for release out
into rivers like this.
And there's a fair amount of technology involved
where the systems that you hold the mussels in in the places
where they live and the food that you provide them,
to grow it on station requires some significant technology
to do that.
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The team spent a day on West Virginia's Cacapon River
studying its mussel population.
So mussel biologists spend a fair amount of time
out in the river looking for mussels,
especially in the summertime when it's nice and warm
and the water is low and clear where you can see mussels.
The one thing we like to use a mask and snorkel.
You can see underwater and breathe underwater
with one of these, and the closer
you get your face to the bottom of the river, the better chance
you are going to have of seeing the mussels.
Snorkelers brought up several kinds of mussels.
The researchers identified and measured the mussels.
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This data tells scientists how other river's mussels
are doing.
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It was fascinating that there was so much life
below the stream's surface.
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Is there anything that we can do or our viewers
can do from home to help these freshwater mussels?
Well, like I said before, they're
really sensitive to water quality
so anything you can do to prevent pollution from getting
into the stream would be very beneficial for freshwater
mussels.
So if we're boating this summer, the weather
is great to boat on, simply pick up any plastic containers
or bottles that we see and just make
sure we're recycling those.
That would be great, yes.
Awesome.
Thank you, Matthew, so very much for being with us today.
We really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
It's amazing when we can combine our passions using the latest
technology and our love of nature
to help protect wildlife and our wild places.
We'll see you guys next time on the US Fish and Wildlife
Service's Conservation Connect.
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