Native mussels are important to ecosystem.
By Jerry Hume
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 6:47 p.m.
Read more: Local
WAUCEDAH TOWNSHIP -- The DNR and students from Lake Superior State taught Dickinson County kids how to spot fresh water mussels in the Sturgeon River in Waucedah Township Wednesday. They use buckets with clear bottoms to look for mussels.
"Well, you look in the water first, and sometimes you can see the whiteness of their filter and sometimes you can just see the tips of them," said 16-year-old Joseph St. Louis of Iron Mountain.
The kids are a part of a program with Michigan Works and the county conservation district.
Although they’re parasites, native mussels are good for the environment, unlike the zebra mussel. The zebra mussel is an invasive species that actually kills native mussels.
The DNR said native mussels are great environmental indicators.
"They serve as an important link in the food chain between bacteria and algae and mammals, such as mink or otters; even some birds eat them,” said Jessica Mistak, a DNR Senior Fisheries Biologist. “Their shells also provide a habitat for things in the water."
Lake State students have been conducting a mussel survey in the Sturgeon River this summer using a grid to determine the quantity and diversity of native mussels in the U.P.
There are 45 species of mussels in Michigan, and 40 percent of those are listed as threatened, endangered or of special concern.
"Here we have a slipper shell, and it's one of the smallest if not the smallest species in Michigan,” said LSSU student Amanda Chambers, “and it is state threatened, so it is kind of neat to come across one of these up here."
After they complete their mussel survey, they'll make recommendations to protect mussel habitats and bulk up their populations in U.P. waters.
