The Bureau of Fisheries has always maintained an active interest in the
development of the fresh-water mussel fishery of America, which, in its
importance and breadth of territory, is entirely unique in the world.
As early as 1897 and 1898, the shell fishery being then only 4 or 5
years old, the Fish Commission undertook investigations relating to the
various phases of the industry, and several reports were published
dealing with the natural history of mussels, the shell and pearl
fisheries, and the button industry. In a general report on the subject
Dr. Hugh M. Smith then recommended measures for the protection of
mussels. No action followed, and in consequence the scene of the most
important fisheries has greatly shifted since that time.
Some years later there began a special investigation of the
reproduction of mussels, which resulted in the methods of artificial
propagation as developed by Prof. Lefevre and Prof. Curtis, of the
University of Missouri, in association with the Bureau. The Government
then established the Fairport Biological Station to engage in the
propagation of mussels and the studies of mussel problems, besides
exercising wider activities in fishery investigations. For a number of
years field investigations relating to the distribution, habits, and
conditions of life of the mussels have been prosecuted by the staff and
associates of the Bureau throughout the Mississippi Basin.
For the first two years at the Fairport station mussel propagation was
carried on in an experimental way, but beginning with 1912 the
practical operations have been conducted upon as large a scale and over
as wide a territory as the available resources permitted. During the
past two years mussels have been propagated chiefly in the Mississippi
River from Lake Pepin, in Minnesota, to New Boston, Ill.; in the Wabash
River in Indiana, and in the White and Black Rivers of Arkansas. During
the year ended June 30, 1913, about 150,000,000 glochidia, or young
mussels, were put out, and in the first half of the present fiscal year
that number is fully equaled. Such figures appear large. It is not
difficult by the methods of propagation to handle considerable numbers
of glochidia; indeed, it is necessary to work on an ample scale, for in
mussel propagation, as in most forms of fish culture, what we can now
do is to aid the young over the most critical period in their life
history, after which they must be left to continue the struggle for
existence by their own efforts.
We therefore plan to work in such a way that, even with the liberal
discount that nature will surely apply to our returns, there may be
left a real measure of benefit gained without undue cost. Many of the
young will be lost from falling upon unsuitable bottoms and from many
other unfavorable conditions, such as confront every young mussel in
nature with more or less frequency. We would like to remove all of the
unfortunate conditions productive of loss, both to the mussels that we
put out and to those that are propagated entirely by natural means; but
this, of course, is not possible. There are, however, artificial
conditions which do injury to the younger mussels, and it is both
desirable and practicable to prevent such damage as far as can be done
reasonably.