The pink mucket or pink mucket pearly mussel, scientific name Lampsilis abrupta, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of freshwater mussel, an aquatic

Aquatic animal

An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life. It may breathe air or extract its oxygen from that dissolved in water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through its skin. Natural environments and the animals that...

 bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae

Unionidae

Unionidae is a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionoida, the bivalve mollusks sometimes known as river mussels, naiads, or simply as unionids.The range of distribution for this family is world-wide...

, the river mussels. This species is endemic to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Life history

The pink mucket is a rounded, slightly elongate mussel with a thick, inflated, and smooth shell, which is usually yellow-brown in color. It can be found on the bottoms of various bodies of water, among gravel and cobble. It can be found in water one inch to five feet in depth. The mussel can live up to fifty years, but it rarely reaches this age now. The pink mucket has been a federally endangered species since the year 1976.

The pink mucket reproduces in a similar manner to most other freshwater mussels. It requires a stable and undisturbed habitat. The male releases sperm into the current, and the female siphons it into its gill chamber, where the eggs are then fertilized. Once the eggs have gone through this process, they mature into larvae called (glochidia

Glochidium

The glochidium is a special microscopic larval stage of larger freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae, the river mussels and European freshwater pearl mussels....

) and are discharged into the water. The glochidium lodges in the gills of a host fish, such as black bass

Black bass

Micropterus , is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is M. dolomieu, the smallmouth bass...

 and walleye

Walleye

Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...

. After the larval mussel spends a few days to weeks attached to the host it becomes a juvenile mussel and drops to the substrate. The pink mucket spawns from August to September, and releases their glochidia the following year from May to June.

Reason for decline

At one time, the pink mucket was present in twenty-six rivers in the Midwest and eastern United States. The building of dams and reservoirs caused the flooding of the habitat, affecting both the mussel and the host fish. Deteriorating water quality and siltation also affects mussel populations. Other practices, such as dredging, gravel mining, removal of trees, and undergrowth along the stream bank, and non-point source pollution from agriculture and urban areas, have contributed to the decline in the pink mucket as well.

Steps to recovery

Mussels are filter feeders that pump water through their siphons to collect food particles from the water. They gather essential nutrients and remove unwanted toxins from the water. Depending on the state, many organizations and conservationists, are making attempts to recover the pink mucket. Protection and management of the pink mucket is clearly related to managing the habitat and the water quality of the large rivers it depends upon. For instance, some landowners report mussel poaching by calling their local conservation agents. Others have already taken steps to recover the pink mucket. The state of Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, where the pink mucket is endangered, has created the Kentucky’s Wildlife Action Plan. This plan was developed by the state to help create priority conservation actions for the aquatic and wildlife that have become threatened and endangered species. In July 2007, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources reared pink mucket mussels at the Center for Mollusk Conservation and released eleven hundred pink muckets in the Green River

Green River (Kentucky)

The Green River is a tributary of the Ohio River that rises in Lincoln County in south-central Kentucky. Tributaries of the Green River include the Barren River, the Nolin River, the Pond River and the Rough River...

. The state will continue to work on the endangered species for the next several years in order to increase and even augment the current populations of mussels. The states of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 and Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 have designated mussel sanctuaries in parts of the Cumberland

Cumberland River

The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...

 and Tennessee River

Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...

s and have also successfully reproduced populations at these locations. The recovery of the pink mucket is expected to improve over the years.