PROTECTION OF FRESH -WATER MUSSELS. 7 



\vith the subject of protoctivo inea-siires, but it will be advisable to 

 give liTst an abbreviated account of the conditions and possibilities 

 uf artificial propagation, especially as the results of propagation will 

 be greater or less according to the degree of protection extended to 

 the young mussels. 



ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF MUSSELS BY THE GOVERNMENT- 



ESTABIJSIIMENT OF rROPAGA'noX, 



The Bureau of Fisheries has always maintained an active interest 

 MX the development of the fresh-water mussel fisherj'^ of America, 

 \vhich, 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 investiga- 

 tions relating to the various phases of the industry, and several re- 

 ports 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 ^I. 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 repro- 

 duction of mussels, which resulted in the methods of artificial propa- 

 gation as developed by Prof. Lefevre and Prof. Curtis, of the Uni- 

 versity 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 ye^rs field investigations relating to the distribution, habits, and 

 conditions of life of the mussels have been prosecuted by the staif 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 territorj^ as the available resources permitted. During 

 the past two years mussels have been propagated chiefly in the Mis- 

 sippi Biver from Lake Pepin, in Minnesota, to New Boston, 111. ; in 

 the "Wabash River in Indiana, and in the "^Miite and Black Rivers of 

 Arkansas. During the year ended June 30, 1913, about 150.000,000 

 glochidia, or young mussels, \\ere 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 

 iinsiderable numbers of glochidia; indeed, it is necessaiy to work 

 ^■n 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 



