Biologists search for source of illness killing mussels in Clinch River

Scientists have converged on the Clinch River in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee to try and find out why thousands of fresh water mussels called pheasantshells are dying.

Essential to the river’s health because of its filtering functions, the decline in the mussel population could result in the Clinch flowing into a critical mass. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jordan Richard told the Associated Press identifying the source of sickness won’t be easy.

“Could this be caused by climate change? Is this due to pollution? And the answer is probably always somewhere in the middle. Even if we pinpoint a single, specific pathogen or disease that is the reason the pheasantshells are dying in the Clinch River right now, there’s probably more to it than that,” he said.

(PHOTO: The Nature Conservancy / nature.org)