Mussel Survey Protocols

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Mussel Survey Protocols
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Facility
View from Roaring Plains
West Virginia Ecological Services Field Office
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service West Virginia Field Office works with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Our office helps to recover threatened and endangered species, enforces federal fish,...
Conservation Office
Davis,WV
Federally Threatened Bog Turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii)
New York Ecological Services Field Office
Through a series of laws created over the last century, Americans have declared that we need to collectively protect landscapes, fish, wildlife, and plants. Several agencies in the federal government put our country's conservation laws into action, and the Ecological Services Program of the U.S....
Conservation Office
Cortland,NY
Program
A rocky shoreline of a river. The water is calm. Mist and green branches line the river.
The Ecological Services Program works to restore and protect healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and plants and the environments upon which they depend. Using the best available science, we work with federal, state, Tribal, local, and non-profit stakeholders, as well as private land owners, to...
Program
Baileys Crossroads,VA
Species
A clubshell mussel in the water

The clubshell is a small to medium size (up to 3 inches long) freshwater mussel that was listed as endangered, without critical habitat, in 1993 (58 FR 5638-5642). Its shell exterior is yellow to brown with bright green blotchy rays and shell interior is typically white. The shell is wedge...

FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species

This freshwater mussel is found in the James River basin in Virginia and West Virginia and in the Upper Dan sub-basin of the Roanoke River basin in Virginia and North Carolina. The James spinymussel is a small freshwater mussel slightly less than three inches in length. Adults have a dark brown...

FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species
A group of about ten mussels being held partially out of the water by a pair of cupped hands

The northern riffleshell is a small to medium size (up to 3 inches long) freshwater mussel that was listed as endangered, without critical habitat, in 1993 (58 FR 5638-5642). Its shell exterior is brownish yellow to yellowish green with fine green rays. The shell interior is typically white. The...

Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Subspecies
The rayed bean is a small mussel, usually less than 1.5 inches (in) (3.8 centimeters (cm)) in length (Cummings and Mayer 1992, p. 142; Parmalee and Bogan 1998, p. 244; West et al. 2000, p. 248). The shell outline is elongate or ovate in males and elliptical in females, and moderately inflated in...
FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species
Brown and black striated freshwater mussels sitting a steel truck bed

Shell surface: Many low, wide bumps run in a single file line down the outer shell surface, from the beak (the swelling above the point where the 2 shell halves join) to the opposite shell edge. The rest of the shell surface is smooth (without bumps), and looks slightly pressed-in from the beak...

FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species
Snuffbox

The snuffbox is a small- to medium-sized mussel, with males reaching up to 2.8 in (7.0 cm) in length (Cummings and Mayer 1992, p. 162; Parmalee and Bogan 1998, p. 108). The maximum length of females is about 1.8 in (4.5 cm) (Parmalee and Bogan 1998, p. 108). The shape of the shell is somewhat...

FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species

The round hickorynut mussel is a wide-ranging species, historically known from 12 states, though now occurs in nine, as well as the Canadaian Province of Ontario.  It is currently found in five major basins: Great Lakes, Ohio (where it is most prevalent), Cumberland, Tennessee, and Lower...

FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species
Mussel resting on gravel

In 1831, Isaac Lea described the longsolid, a medium-sized mussel, up to five inches long, which potentially live up to 50 years.  It is found in small streams to large rivers, and prefers a mixture of sand, gravel, and cobble substrates.

The mussel is found in Alabama, Kentucky,...

FWS Focus
Species
Kingdom
Animalia
Taxonomic Rank
Species
Subject tags
Surveying
FWS and DOI Region(s)
Pacific