Moving our Mussels

The mussel work has begun! We are partnering with the US Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Bay Field Office and the University of MD in their project to deploy young Eastern Lampmussels in small floating baskets and silos at different sites in the Anacostia River this summer to track their survival. This is the very first step, ever, towards restoring freshwater mussels in the river. Later on this year we will be working with our own mussels cultured from Anacostia River broodstock we collected ourselves. 

Also pictured here is a female Alewife floater from Buzzard Point in the #AnacostiaRiver which produced 17,000 juvenile mussels! The little guys are currently being cultured at the Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery in Charles City, VA. The mother was released back into the river where she was found this week. Her offspring will be part of our mussel restoration project coming up later this year.