In Extremis

Simon Hirst – River Esk Project Officer

As mentioned before on this Blog, the River Esk in the North York Moors is the only river in Yorkshire with a Freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) population. Our population is in drastic decline – currently it is estimated there are approximately 1,000 individuals, all adults.

We’re part of a national project (funded by Biffa Award) to conserve the populations of Freshwater pearl mussel in England. Nine years ago a number of the adult mussels were collected from the Esk and moved to the Freshwater Biological Association’s Facility in the Lake District. A couple of weeks ago, early one morning, Eloy from the Association and I collected another 20 and took them across to join the others at the Facility 130 miles away.

The idea is the translocated adults breed and the Facility then rear the captive juvenile mussels with the ultimate idea of reintroducing the young mussels back into their native rivers. In the meantime we’re continuing to tackle the problems that have had and continue to have such a detrimental effect on the mussels. So on the Esk we’re working in partnership to improve the riparian habitat in order to increase water quality and vitally reduce the amount of suffocating sediment so that the river becomes a suitable release site and juvenile mussels have a chance of surviving. Improving the river habitat also benefits the migratory fish which are such a vital part of the mussels’ lifecycle.

We’re trying everything we can to help the Esk population and give it the best chance of survival. Mussels can live to be over 100 but if there are no juveniles, slowly but surely the Freshwater pearl mussel will become locally extinct.