Potomac River Mussel Pilot Shows 97% Survival Rate in Restoration Effort

Potomac River Mussel Pilot Shows 97% Survival Rate in Restoration Effort

Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologists retrieved 358 of 368 juvenile eastern elliptio mussels from protective concrete silos in the Potomac River this fall, posting a 97 percent survival rate in the first field phase of a pilot restoration project. The year-old mussels, each smaller than a fingernail, spent the summer inside 25-pound concrete bowls anchored along a stretch of the upper Potomac near Indian Head and upstream of Dam No…

DNR Scientists Chart Future for Freshwater Mussel Restoration in Maryland

On a chilly fall morning, as fog drifted over the Potomac River, scientists with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources hauled three concrete balls out of the water. Inside each of these 25-pound, thick-walled bowls was a chamber containing several small shells—a group of year-old freshwater mussels. Their concrete shelters, or silos, allowed the juvenile eastern elliptio mussels to grow undisturbed, consuming suspended particles carried b…

DNR Scientists Chart Future For Freshwater Mussel Restoration In Maryland - The BayNet

Maryland DNR biologist Matt Ashton hold several eastern elliptio mussels, as natural resources technician Mike Dhillon places mussels in quadrants as part of a pilot restoration project. Photo by Joe Zimmermann/Maryland DNR ANNAPOLIS, Md. – On a chilly fall morning, as fog drifted over the Potomac River, scientists with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources hauled three concrete balls out of the water. Inside each of these 25-pound, thick…