Dear Andy,

Thanks for posting this news item.  Nowadays it is almost unthinkable that we
might witness a comeback in the naiad fauna.

The Purple Bankclimber (my upper case), Elliptoideus sloatianus (I. Lea, 1840),
is still common in the Flint River and Appalachicola Rivers (the same system as
the Chattahoochee) as well as the Ochlockonee River to the east.

There is a bit of information on, and image of, this species on the JSC
website; see: <http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/champion.htm>

Harry


At 01:29 PM 12/11/00 -0600, you wrote:
>
> A word of explanation: The Chattahoochee River flows through Atlanta,
> Georgia, and forms part of the border between Georgia and Alabama in the
> southeastern USA.
>
> Andrew K. Rindsberg
> Geological Survey of Alabama
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Barnhart, Chris
> Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 12:23 PM
> To: Unio Listserver (E-mail)
> Subject: unionews
>
>
>
> <http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-08-09.html>http://ens-news.com/e
> ns/dec2000/2000L-12-08-09.html
>
> RARE MUSSEL FOUND IN CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER AFTER 150 YEARS
>
> ATLANTA, Georgia, December 8, 2000 (ENS) - The purple bankclimber, a
> threatened freshwater mussel, has been found in the Chattachoochee River for
> the first time in about 150 years. Carson Stringfellow, an environmental
> consultant and part time environmental studies instructor at Columbus State
> University who specializes in freshwater mussels, documented the presence of
> the mussel in October. "When I first saw it I was looking straight down on
> the top, and I thought it was a washboard," said Stringfellow, referring to
> one of the six other mussel species that he has documented in this section of
> the river. "But when I reached down and picked it up, I immediately knew it
> wasn't. I thought, Oh my, that's a purple bankclimber!"
>
> Stringfellow recorded the physical description of the mussel and took digital
> photographs from many different angles, which he sent to Dr. Jim Williams, a
> mussel biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "I couldn't believe after
> all these years that a purple bankclimber could still be in the
> Chattahoochee," said Williams. "I immediately looked back through historical
> records, and found only two other records of a purple bankclimber in the
> Chattahoochee - and the most recent one was from about 1850." But Bob Butler,
> a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who is writing a recovery
> plan for the purple bankclimber and several other southeastern mussel
> species, says it is too early to tell whether the discovery of this
> individual mussel is significant to the recovery of the species. "A single
> individual does not mean there is a viable population," said Butler. "We need
> to conduct surveys to find out if there are more individuals, and if they are
> recruiting young individuals into the population. Mussels can live over 50
> years, so this could just be an individual that has survived since before the
> dams were constructed in the 1900's."



Harry G. Lee
Suite 500
1801 Barrs St.
Jacksonville, FL 32204
USA   904-384-6419
<[log in to unmask]>
Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/jacksonv.htm

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