North America has the highest diversity of freshwater mussels in the world, but no other form of wildlife is more at risk of extinction. The Nature Conservancy reports that about 70 percent of mussels in North America are extinct or imperiled, compared to 16.5 percent of mammalian species and 14.6 percent of bird species.
The mussels pictured here were collected yesterday from the Potomac River near Noland's Ferry, where a young Thomas Jefferson crossed the Potomac on May 10, 1776, on his way to signing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. George Washington also crossed here on his way to Frederick in the first week of August 1785.
Freshwater mussels and their shells were a food, bead, and tool source for native people, and later a source for "pearl buttons" used by European settlers.
Today, thousands of tons of live mussels are harvested from U.S. rivers each year and shipped to Japan where pieces of the shells are used as "seed pearls" in cultured oysters.
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