On occasion, the well-hidden boy in me is about 10 years old again, barefooted and at the creek in knee-deep water.
In those days I stooped time after time to pick up stones and fossils, and mussels. It was not uncommon to find the latter very much alive, their slimy white innards quickly hidden in their bank safe of a shell until I put them back in the sun-bronzed water where they'd slowly re-open and inch on.
At 56, Brant Fisher, the nongame aquatic biologist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, has similar experiences that continue to this day.
Growing up wandering his grandparents' Pennsylvania dairy farm, Fisher, now a 30-year veteran of the DNR with a master's degree in Aquatic Sciences from Purdue University, says he's always enjoyed the outdoors and has "...kicked around in streams catching crayfish and minnows" since he was young. He knew long ago that he "...always wanted a job that would be outside and not stuck behind a desk."
Fisher, indeed, got that longed-for job, and, as the weather grows cooler, gets cold feet as well. One of his primary goals is not only studying Indiana's fabulous variety of mussels, but he's also working toward their preservation while educating others as to why these creatures play a critical role as part of our aquatic systems. He says mussels are, among many other things, "...our natural filters."
I posed a question to Fisher about the stream I spend considerable time around, the Big Raccoon. If it is cleaner than it used to be -- and it certainly is -- then why don't I find mussels in it like I used to?
Typically, he gave a very complete response: "What can happen is that an event many years ago could have had a very negative effect on the mussel community, they were highly impacted, and they just haven't been able to rebound on their own, even though water quality issues may be much better. Mussels don't recolonize as easily as fish can.
"There has to be another source population nearby, then they have to move back into a stream while attached to the gills of a host fish [mussels have a parasitic stage to their life cycle where they attach to a fish]. Mussels can't move long distances as adults. They only have one foot that looks like your tongue. There could also be other new water quality issues that are affecting mussels that we don't even know about yet."
Indiana's mussel populations were devastated by decades of abuse by the button, pearl collecting, and cultured pearl industries from around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries until legislation made collecting them and their shells illegal in 1991.
Millions of mussels were "harvested" without conscience, and many of those operations dotted the banks of the Wabash River in our region. Fisher knows nothing can be done about that destruction, but there's good reason to protect mussels now.
"Mussels are an important part of our aquatic systems, a group of native species that should be there," he says. "They are food for a bunch of animals. They help stabilize the substrate [the base on which organisms exist] and oxygenate it when they bury themselves in it.
"They are filter feeders, converting what they filter to their own biomass, and what they expel as waste is used by other invertebrates. Even after they die, their shells are used as homes by other aquatic organisms. If you have a robust, reproducing mussel population in your stream, that is a good thing, and it means things are likely working pretty well."
One program that Fisher also supports is Indiana's TIP (Turn in a Poacher or Polluter) hotline, a program that was initiated in the state years ago so Hoosiers could report -- anonymously if they wish -- the illegal taking of wildlife, and particularly important for mussels, the polluting of soil and water resources that can lead to harming them.
Use of the hotline -- at 1-800-TIP-IDNR -- can lead to a $500 reward going to the tipster if it is successfully acted on. Most callers, however, just want to do the right thing in reporting abuse of the laws and the wildlife they protect.
Brent Bohbrink, DNR Communications Commander Lieutenant, heads the TIP Program. He says: "We haven't had any TIP cases come through this year or in the past that were directly related to the protection of mussels. Unfortunately, most people either don't know about the concerns of mussels or care enough about them to consider contacting the TIP hotline."
That could change as Hoosiers are better educated about the importance of mussels in our environment. "There have been mussel kills, even recently, as the result of some sort of pollution event, a release of something that shouldn't have been released," Fisher says.
"Either the perpetrator was doing it on purpose and hoping not to get caught, or it was an accident. I also know of people collecting mussels for food, bait, and who knows what else. I don't think anyone is doing it for pearls at this point."
Fisher reminds us that it is illegal to collect live mussels or even their shell material. "Lots of people probably pick up a shell or two and take it with them when they are recreating. That is technically illegal. I think some anglers, if mussels get exposed when rivers are getting low, may take some to use as bait, and that is also illegal, but the mussels would likely die anyway if they were out of the water for too long."
Drought-like conditions, like those we've experienced, hurt mussel populations too. "It is tricky when our rivers and streams get extremely low, and some sand-gravel bars that haven't been exposed for a while are. There will be lots of mussels that will be exposed too, and then they are eaten by predators or eventually just die in place because they can't get back into the water," Fisher adds.
Fisher is a busy man these days, currently working with mussels owning such colorful names as Clubshell, Northern Riffleshell, Kidneyshell, Wavyrayed Lampmussel, and Fanshell.
He has projects going on all over Indiana, from the Tippecanoe River to the White River, from Eel River to the Grand Calumet, and he is working in conjunction with organizations like the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Environmental Management, the Muncie Sanitary District's Bureau of Water Quality, Dunes National Park, and The Nature Conservancy, as well as many local agencies and non-profits.
As far as the Wabash River goes, Brant says there are more mussels in the northern reaches of the river than in the south where more sand accumulates.
As to the future of mussels in the state, Fisher says, "Many of the common species we have seem to be remaining common, but the rare species, in most instances, continue to stay rare. In some cases, populations may be improving slightly, while others are declining slightly. Without a lot of intervention most of our rare species will always be rare; they just don't have the mechanisms to redistribute themselves much at all."
He adds, "I tend to say that mussels are holding their own."