NRCC students participate in Claytor Lake Mussel Salvage
A.J. Johnson (left) and Sarah Martin. Photo courtesy of NRCC
Several of Dr. Cynthia Wynne’s students took a field trip this past weekend that required some serious muscle…er…mussel!
They headed out to Claytor Lake to help save mussels stranded on the shoreline during the lake’s recent drawdown.
The Mussel Salvage Event was organized by Appalachian Power, Friends of Claytor Lake, Pulaski County, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Wynne and her students walked the muddy shoreline with other groups from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and helped save a total of 5,500 mussels! The students told Wynne they had so much fun, that they’d like to be involved in any future trips she takes – even after the semester is over.
Pictured below are (back row, from left) Tiffany Sherman, Chase Hale, Ellen Lester, A.J. Johnson, April Whitehurst, Sameh Khayat, David Roth, and Dorian Custer; (middle row, from left) Kensey, Harenet Gebrechristos, Sarah Martin, and Cynthia Wynne; and (front row, from left) Eliza Denere, Ellery Lester, and Sara Tadesse.
– Submitted by Amanda J. Allen, New River Community College
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This story doesn’t say what was done with those saved mussels. If the mussels were thrown back in the lake, they weren’t really saved because they can’t reproduce in the lake waters….they need running water. The mussels should have been released below the dam or well upstream of the lake.
Comment by Randy Abbott — November 23, 2012 @ 11:30 am