Bernard Sietman and Dan Kelner were freshwater mussel biologists working for an environmental consulting firm. Their job today was to supervise divers transplanting mussels from under the island bridge to a safe location, as the bridge was due to be redone. They picked up some of their samples of Megalonaias nervosa , commonly known as the washboard mussel, to show me. I decided to test them with a rare Louisiana mussel that I know personally because I photographed it for my Discovering Louisiana book. Well, I guess these guys know their stuff.
Mussels are all they consult about.
They had not found any of the local endangered species yet under that bridge. We talked of Muscatine, Iowa, which was the pearl-shell button capitol of the world at one time. Now mussel habitat is vanishing, as locks and dams have changed the ecology of the river. Not wanting to but needing to, I bucked back into the wind and made 33 miles to a lovely beach a few miles above Muscatine. Now the sun is rising.