The San Antonio River Authority collaborated with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help bring thousands of native mussels to waterways in the area.
SAN ANTONIO — Mussels act as natural water filters, removing harmful debris and bacteria. KENS 5 spent the day with San Antonio River Authority to see why these tiny creatures are essential for the environment.
Set up on a small table inside the San Antonio River Flood Tunnel Inlet, are a group of biologists studying hundreds of native mussels.
Senior aquatic biologist for San Antonio River Authority, Austin Davis said this conservation effort has been years in the making.
“We used to have native populations here, once upon a time,” Davis said. “But through urbanization, we’ve lost those populations.”
Returning the mussels to the San Antonio River is the last step after a two-step process: etching – to keep track of the ones being researched, and tagging.
“We can go back once they’re placed in the river,” Davis said. “We can track their survival, their growth rates, other data for their habitat.”
A few hours later the crew made their way to Espada Dam. Aquatic biologist Caille Marshall said the research that is being implemented now will hopefully stabilize the mussel population to grow.
“Right now, we’re doing site-wide measurements for one of the locations we plan on reintroducing our native freshwater mussels,” Marshall said.
The group will be collecting data like the depth across the channel bed, and what makes up the sediment on the bottom of the body of water: be it silt, sand, or clay.
“All of which are very very important for our mussels because they live on the bottom of the channel bed and they don’t have legs or fins, or anything to really choose where they are in the water,” she said.
One thousand freshwater mussels have already been returned to the San Antonio River.
San Antonio River Authority anticipates 4,000 will be reintroduced to their habitat by the end of 2024.
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