February 10, 2025 — The presence of freshwater mussels is indicative of high water quality and a healthy ecosystem. Their absence tells a different story, and the latter is the more-familiar tale in southern New England. Their populations in this three-state region have been degraded by a long history of damming and pollution.
University of Rhode Island research associate Elizabeth Herron noted these overlooked creatures are a critical part of the region’s aquatic systems.
“They help reduce nutrients and algae by filtering out things. They can reduce things like bacteria, so they’re important,” said the program coordinator for URI Watershed Watch. “They’re an important food source. I have a dock on a pond, and I can tell you every spring, when we put the dock back out, there’s a giant pile of empty, freshwater mussel clams that the muskrats feasted on over the winter.”
These bivalves are sometimes called “livers of the river,” because they filter particles such as algae, E.coli, and fungi out of the water. They also provide habitat for other invertebrates and fish, and they deposit nutrients into the benthic layer for other creatures to eat.