Fish and Wildlife Service Announces Five-Year Review Regarding Status of Three Endangered Southeastern Mussels
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2008
Contacts:
Tom MacKenzie, 678-296-6400, Tom_MacKenzie@fws.gov
Jim Widlak, 931/528-6481
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released a five-year status review that recommends removing three endangered mussels from the list of endangered and threatened species because they are believed to be extinct.
The three endangered Southeastern mussels are the turgid-blossom pearlymussel, yellow-blossom pearlymussel, and green-blossom pearlymussel.
The turgid-blossom pearlymussel lived in the Tennessee River and Cumberland River drainages in Tennessee, in Spring Creek, the Black River, and White River in Arkansas, and in Shoal Creek and Bear Creek in Alabama. The yellow-blossom pearlymussel lived in the Tennessee River and Cumberland River drainages in Tennessee and Alabama. The green-blossom pearlymussel lived in the upper Tennessee River drainage in Tennessee and Virginia. All three species were listed as endangered in 1976.
Findings from the five-year review indicate that live or fresh-dead individuals of the green-blossom pearlymussel have not been found throughout its range for 26 years. Live or fresh-dead individuals of the yellow-blossom pearlymussel and turgid-blossom pearlymussel have not been collected for 41 years and 43 years, respectively, and reproducing populations of all three species have not been reported for more than 50 years. Biologists have conducted comprehensive mussel surveys in rivers historically supporting these species, but have not found them despite the fact that some of the rivers currently support good populations of other mussel species. While not targeted for these blossom mussels, these surveys were thorough, and have been conducted throughout the past several decades as part of, for example, section 7 consultations or state conducted surveys.
Habitat fragmentation, alteration, and destruction are the leading probable causes for the three mussel species’ decline.
Under the Endangered
Species Act,
species are designated
as endangered
when they are
in danger of
becoming extinct
throughout all
or a significant
portion of their
range. Although
the Service has
made a recommendation
to delist these
three mussel
species, a five-year
review is not
a decision-making
document. A
decision to delist
requires a separate
rulemaking process
providing ample
opportunity for
public review
and comment.
