Mussel Salvage Rescue an Important Event
On the hunt for mussels to salvage at Claytor Lake State Park’s lake (VA).
Although it’s been several years since I was personally involved, every few years Claytor Lake, part of Claytor Lake State Park near Dublin, Virginia, draws down its manmade lake for shore maintenance and dock repairs for residents. And during this time I was along, the mussels in the lake near that shore needed some rescuing because they can’t move very fast.
This was done on November 8th, with thousands saved! Virginia Master naturalist Judy McCord bragged that students brought her “buckets” of mussels found in the sand to I. D., then thrown back in the water where they belong.
Why should we care about the mollusk called a mussel? A mussel is a bivalve mollusk. According to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, they can filter or clean several gallons (!) of water a day of impurities. Out of the water, they can temporarily close up their shells for preservation. But if their gills totally dry out, that would be very bad for them, even life threatening. We actually found a few “standing up” in the sand trying to stay moist, just a tip of their tips sticking out for people to see.
I was with a group of several naturalists and citizens. One boy with a mom who picked up a mussel cried, “It’s moving!” He backed away, while his mother replied, “it won’t hurt you,” which is true. They have a translucent little “foot” that can stick out to help them move a tiny bit. There was actually one “line in the sand” where one mussel tried to move closer to the water.
Mussels have names based on their shape, like the pistol grip, pigtoe, pocketbook mussels. We found ones called giant floaters, paper pondshells, and a few Eastern ellipitos. I don’t come up with these names, but they are a bit whimsical.
These mussels can spend several hours to a few days in the sand outside the water and survive, if they have enough moisture. They are an important part of any water ecosystem, so I hope we did a good thing for the lake. (The featured image is of a paper pondshell, which was unfortunately broken underneath, though I was encouraged to put in back in the water. I don’t think it “made it,” though.)
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