Friends of the Upper Mississippi

When things are left in the river they become habitat for all of the animals that live there. Mussel cages are no different. Despite our best efforts, a handful of cages were left in the St. Croix River for more than 4 years. There wasn’t much left except the bases that still provided excellent habitat for native mussels. It’s unlikely that the mussels crawled in themselves, instead it’s likely that their host fish were hiding in the structure provided by the bases and the juvenile mussels dropped off and grew there. Species found included Endangered Higgins Eye, Plain Pocketbook, Fatmucket, Paper Pondshell, Giant Floater, Pink Heelsplitter, Threeridge, White Heelsplitter, Mucket, Creeper and Cylindrical Papershell. While we were recovering the cages we also looked for Higgins Eye broodstock and found some displaying mussels and some natural surfaces providing habitat as well.

By: Megan Bradley

The remains of a mussel cage.

 Genoa NFH mussel biologists have been busy this summer tagging juvenile mussels prior to their release into local rivers. One of the last batches of mussels to be tagged are a cohort of 3000 Salamander Mussels that were propagated in 2018 and are now ready for release. These mussels have been tagged with a black glue dot on each valve, or side of the shell, so during future survey efforts researchers will be able to tell if a found animal was propagated at the hatchery or is the result of natural recruitment. Later this summer, we’ll be working with partners from the Wisconsin DNR to release these mussels into the lower Chippewa River. Salamander mussels are a smaller mussel species, with mature adults reaching about 2” in length. These mussels are found only in specific sections of large and medium sized rivers in the Midwest, as they prefer very specific habitats conditions. Salamander mussels can occasionally be found in high abundance in protected spots under large flat rocks or the submerged ledges along cliff faces, near- but protected from- swift flows.
It is not a coincidence that these very specific habitat preferences are also the preferred habitats of the Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus)—the aptly named Salamander Mussel is the only North American freshwater mussel species that uses a non-fish host to complete its lifecycle. The process is the same- Salamander Mussel glochidia attach to Mudpuppy gills just like other species’ glochidia attach to fish gills, then, when development is complete, drop off the host animal and settle into the sediment- in this case the protected spots under large rocks where the Mudpuppies spend much of their time. After release this fall, we hope these juveniles will be able to settle in good habitats with healthy Mudpuppy populations, and help this interesting mussel species maintain healthy populations in the Chippewa River! By Beth Glidewell

Juvenile Salamander Mussels with a black superglue dot on each valve are kept in a tank at the hatchery while waiting to be released into the Chippewa River. Photo credit: Beth Glidewell/ USFWS.

Our world has changed dramatically in the past few months. Even in the world of fish production. In a typical year, the Genoa National Fish Hatchery (GNFH) would go off station to collect eggs from 6 river strains of wild lake sturgeon to raise to fingerling size to reduce predation. Then they would be stocked in a number of different locations to restore lake sturgeon within its historic range. This year in the middle of a global pandemic all off-station travel was ceased in order to protect staff and others from the novel virus. Only one lake sturgeon egg take was actually accomplished in New York out of the 6 active programs that the station is involved in. This was due to its occurrence happening in early June, when restrictions were easing in upstate New York. Our partners in Conservation, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, (NYDEC) with the assistance of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s New York Field Office (NYFO) collected and shipped the eggs overnight via FEDEX to the station in order for us to continue this restoration effort in Calendar Year 2020. The eggs were in great shape and hatched out well. So well that surplus fish were available for shipment back the state of New York. In a normal year, we would load up the smaller surplus fish in August and drive them out to our partners in New York as a precursor to the final distribution of an additional stocking of 7 inch fish in mid-October.
This year with travel still unavailable a new plan had to be formulated. As with the eggs, the only mode of transport available to us was via FedEx. Not having shipped lake sturgeon with this method over this long distance by air was a little disconcerting at best. Using the limited information available in “grey literature” from other species of fish we set out to document the actual effectiveness of this method of transportation on lake sturgeon small fingerlings of less than 2.5 inches. To date, the station has shipped 10,000 small fingerlings using this method back to New York for stocking by New York DEC and FWS’s NYFO personnel by priority overnight airmail with minimal loss. In a normal year, this method would not be considered given the uncertainties of air freight travel, but in this instance, desperation leads to innovation. Through 20 boxes of freight, 10,000 2 month old fish measuring 2-2.5 inches were distributed in their native habitat. In the year of 2020, we are going to try to count this one as a win.
By: Doug Aloisi

Top- Lake Sturgeon fry pre-shipping. Bottom- Boxed lake sturgeon fry – Photo Credit:Doug Aloisi/USFWS

Sometimes the stars align just perfectly that allows us to partner with some of our traditional partners in a relatively new emerging resource area such as mussel restoration. It especially works well when our partners are as passionate about the resource as The St. Regis Mohawk tribe of northern New York. The hatchery has an ongoing relationship with the tribe involving lake sturgeon restoration. Genoa has been actively supplying lake sturgeon fingerlings for northern New York waters since 2011. The tribe has recently become interested in freshwater mussel propagation for restoration due to recent tribal aquatic resource recovery plans that include mussel restoration using propagation as a recovery tool.

Further contacts were made when tribal biologists attended the Freshwater Mussel Propagation for Restoration course at the FWS National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown West Virginia. Genoa mussel biologists assist in the teaching and formulation of that class as well as the Conservation Biology of Freshwater Mussels course offered

there. Through these classes a relationship was formed and we agreed to assist in drafting a cooperative agreement in order to further the tribe’s freshwater mussel propagation program through technical expertise and assistance, providing host fish of various species, analyzing food content of the tribes hatchery water supplies, and by reviewing designs of the tribal hatchery in order to suggest improvements relating to freshwater mussel propagation.

In the past year, this partnership has proven effective by supplying 2 shipments of freshwater drum, a host fish for 2 species of concern referenced in the lower Grasse River Mussel Recovery plan. Also provided to the tribe was a review of their newly constructed mussel propagation lab and review of the Quality Assurance Project Plan focusing on freshwater mussel propagation This is a great start to a valuable partnership to conserve fish and aquatic resources in tribal waters. We look forward to the future and all of the potential opportunities at hand to further stewardship of aquatic resources with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.

Bt Doug Aloisi

Hatchery biologists have spent the last several weeks preparing juvenile mussels of several species for release into the Mississippi River near Guttenberg, Iowa. This is stocking event is part of a multi-year effort to restore the mussel population in an area of the river that suffered severe impacts from a train derailment. Black Sandshell, Yellow Sandshell, Plain Pocketbook, Washboard, and Higgins Eye mussels were propagated at Genoa NFH, and have been reared at the hatchery, in the MARS ‘mussel trailer’ and in submerged containers in the Dubuque Ice Harbor (in collaboration with the National Mississippi River Museum) for the last 2- 3 years.
With high water for much of last fall, we and our Iowa DNR partners were not able to stock juvenile mussels at the site during 2019. This summer, with good river conditions the juvenile mussels were ready for the river after spending an additional winter and spring in the mussel building at Genoa NFH (the mussel biologists were also ready for the several thousand, rapidly growing juvenile mussels to go to the river!).
Prior to release, juvenile mussels are marked or tagged so future monitoring efforts can determine if a mussel was propagated or has resulted from natural reproduction or is an animal that has moved into the target area from surrounding areas. A colored super glue dot is added to one or both valves of the shell for most species, or in the case of Federally Endangered Higgins Eye mussels, a tag with a unique number is glued to the shell. When all of the mussels were counted and tagged, they were loaded up into big transport coolers, taken to Guttenberg, transferred to biologists from the Iowa DNR, and released into the Mississippi River. Hopefully the little mussels will settle in and help establish a healthy, stable mussel bed for years to come.
By Beth Glidewell

Washboard mussels laid out for glue dot tagging.

Higgins Eye with newly affixed numbered tags.

Pocketbook juveniles laid out for glue dot tagging prior to release in the Mississippi River near Guttenberg, Iowa. USFWS photos.