harvest information for individual species is available, the total 

 mussel harvest for the river increased from 148,000 pounds in 1894 to 

 more than 16 million pounds in 1899 (Table 7). In 1901 a shipment of 

 approximately 1.5 million pounds of shells, comprised mostly of ebony 

 shells and "sand shells", left Hannibal, Missouri (Townsend, 1902: 707). 



The only other pre-dam year for which data are available is 1922. 

 Although the catch for the entire river was greatly increased over 

 previous data, the catch from the river by Illinois fishermen was sig- 

 nificantly reduced from their 1899 share of the catch (Table 7 ) . As 

 the depletion of the initial mussel fishing areas around Muscatine in- 

 creased, this fishery spread into Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri 

 (Cohen, 1921: 39) and the increased catch by fishermen from other 

 states accounts for Illinois fishermen taking a reduced proportion of 

 the Mississippi River catch. 



Mussel harvests in post-construction years were greatly reduced 

 from earlier figures (Table 7 ) . While post-construction data are 

 only available since 1955, it appears that the commercial mussel in- 

 dustry faltered earlier: 



... by the 1930 's the mussel industry on the Mississippi 

 River was dead. . . . The finishing touch came when plastic 

 buttons were introduced onto the market. (Nord, 1967: 192) 



As on the Illinois River, the Japanese pearl-culture markets of 

 the 1960 's stimulated increased mussel fishing on the Mississippi 

 River. Peak production during this period lasted only a year or two 

 with Illinois fishermen taking over 2,000,000 pounds from the Mis- 

 sissippi in 1966 (Table 7). Interestingly, this figure is comparable 

 to the harvest taken from the Illinois River in the same year (Table 5 ) . 

 These new markets also stimulated musseling activity on the Mississippi 

 River by Missouri fishermen. Harvests by Missouri fishermen from the 

 Mississippi River peaked in 1965 and 1966 at over 100,000 pounds (Table 7 ), 

 This increased harvest from the river was short-lived and harvest 

 figures since 1967 are significantly reduced from those of the earlier 



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