OutdoorNebraska

38 2017 Annual Report FISHERIES F I S H E R I E S B I O L O G I S T S B R E A K N E W G R O U N D W I T H M U S S E L R E S E A R C H If you have ever waded into one of Nebraska's rivers or streams and found a shell, you may have wondered where it came from and questioned what was inside it. Those curious enough will fi nd it came from a mussel, a creature that lives and survives in its own secluded and complex world. Freshwater mussels are native to Nebraska's rivers and streams and can be found in canals and some reservoirs, too. They process organic matter, fi ltering the water and excreting nutrients that are used by plant life, invertebrates and fi sh. Beginning in 1997, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission began to research current and historic populations of mussels in Nebraska. This research helped identify several with declining numbers that were candidates for recovery eff orts. In 2014, eff orts began to raise the vulnerable plain pocketbook species of mussels in the North Platte State Fish Hatchery. Fisheries staff developed a new process in which the shell of a fertilized female mussel is propped open and glochidia (mussel larvae) are fl ushed out and implanted on young largemouth bass. After two weeks, the young mussels fall off the host bass and eventually are released in rivers and streams. After two years of successfully rearing young plain pocketbook mussels, hatchery staff began also raising fatmucket mussels. In 2015, more than 11,400 plain pocketbook mussels were raised. Of these, 6,540 were tagged and in August of 2016, released into rivers where they were historically found: Cache Creek in Holt County, the Elkhorn River in Holt County, Rose Creek in Jeff erson County and Shell Creek in Platte County. After two successful years of rearing the plain pocketbook, another mussel species, the fatmucket, was added to the propagation PLAIN POCKETBOOK MUSSEL IN MATING DISPLAY. BOTTOM LEFT: AT A HATCHERY, FISHERIES BIOLOGISTS EXTRACTING GLOCHIDIA FROM A MUSSEL.

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