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Fish Quotes
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White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery is on the leading edge of freshwater mussel conservation, and is one of three federal rainbow trout broodstock facilities. It’s tucked away in the rural Blue Ridge, literally in downtown White Sulphur Springs, WV. Good water makes for a good place to research and culture imperiled freshwater mussels, like the Threeridge, Purple Wartyback, Mucket, Riffleshell.
Dr. Catherine Gatenby and her staff are on the leading edge of mussel conservation. Using common species, they have developed captive rearing techniques as surroagates to imperiled species. In October of 2004, they salvaged 14 mussel species from the Allegheny River in an area associated with a bridge replacement project. Two of the species are considered endangered. They were held at the hatchery, propagated and later released when the silt load from construction subsides and the river bottom returned to normal.
Freshwater mussels make their living in a complex way. Fertilized eggs are incubated on the female's gills, and then are released into the water. These larvae, called glochidia, latch on to very specific fish hosts to complete the next phase of their life. While riding their host fish, living as a parasite, they morph into juveniles, and drop to the river bottom where they will spend the rest of their days; some living up to 50 years. It's there they pay back their host and benefit people, filtering river water and silt, gleaning tiny plankton, fecal matter, and fragments of biological matter called detritus. Remarkably, a bed of mussels 10,000 in number will filter 60,000 gallons of water per day, free of charge.
Mussels improve water quality by filtering particles, and converting organic matter into forms useable by microbes that decompose waste. That benefits aquatic bugs, and in turn, fish. In restoring mussel populations, you restore streams and fisheries and economies.
Rivers are conduits – liquefied watersheds – expressing in their content the character of land and how that land is being treated.
Poor land use practices are reflected in the absence of important aquatic life forms like mussels, from the streams and rivers. Habitat conservation, coupled with leading-edge science will ensure that these unique natural assets will persist. Contact catherine_gatenby@fws.gov |
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