#unionids

[yan-tonz]

Made a cute collage of all 20 freshwater mussel species I found during my snorkel surveys on my refuge this summer! My goal is to find all 23 species and to make a full-fledged poster or educational display for our exhibit hall.

[thebrainscoop]

Diving teams are preparing to move about 450,000 mussels to permit the construction of a new $1 billion Interstate Highway 74 bridge over the Mississippi River on the Iowa-Illinois border, state and federal officials say. ... "These mussels, like all endangered species, are in the public trust, They belong to everybody," said Kristen Lundh, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "There are three endangered species in this mix, and we want to preserve as many of them as we can because they are an important resource here on the Mississippi River."

YAAASSSSSS Thank you Endangered Species Act. Because of you, the well-being of these protected mussels is being considered in a major building initiative. I love me some freshwater bivalves.

If you want to know more about how the ESA helps endangered and threatened species, well, we did a video on that very topic!