Some freshwater mussels have the ability to filter as much as eight gallons of water per day, removing sediment that turns Kansas' rivers chocolate brown. Edwin Miller, a wildlife biologist for Kansas Wildlife & Parks Department, surveyed the river in October.
Edwin Miller, left, a wildlife biologist for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and Bryan Simmons, a terrestrial/aquatic ecologist for the department, survey the freshwater mussel population in the Verdigris River.
Bryan Simmons emerges from the Verdigris River with a freshwater mussel in hand while surveying mussels lining the bottom of the shallow southeastern Kansas river. A century of harvesting, pollution and changes to the mussels' habitat have caused more than 70 percent of the nearly 300 species found in the United States to be listed as threatened or endangered. Some mussels can filter out as much at eight gallons of water per day, creating a natural water filter that scientists say could help improve water quality in Kansas.
About 85 million mussels were harvested from the Neosho River in southeast Kansas in 1912, which represented about 17-percent of the nation's total pearly products. The shells were used to make buttons and shipped to clothing factories in Chicago, New York and Europe.
Before plastics were used to make buttons, mussel shells were harvested and drilled out to make buttons before the 1950's. The button industry played a large role in the over-harvesting of freshwater mussels, which scientists say play a pivotal role in water quality and the food chain.
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