[/caption]Veronica Sturman - I visited the Natchitoches Fish Hatchery to interview Tony Brady, age 38, propagation biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He has been working at the Natchitoches Fish Hatchery almost a year, and he worked at a fish hatchery in Wisconsin for seven years before moving to Natchitoches. He is a mussel expert. He says mussels are natural filters and help keep our fresh waters clean.
Fresh water mussels are kind of like butterflies. They have a larval stage called glochidia. They cocoon on the gills of fish. Then they drop off of fish as tiny little mussels that you have to view under a microscope to see. During my visit, I was lucky enough to get to see a baby mussel under a microscope.
Grown mussels are very sneaky in how they propagate. Each type of mussel uses a different type of fish to incubate their
cocoons. They grow tissue around the glochidia that looks like a certain type of fish, whatever type of fish their target fish likes to eat. When the fish eat the glochidia, some of them get stuck on the gills of the fish and live there until they have transformed into mussels. Most glochidia do not survive until adult stage. Not only do they have to catch onto the gills of a fish to cocoon, but they also have to land in a good spot to live as young mussels.
Tony Brady specializes in Louisiana pearlshell mussels. He is trying to find out when they develop glochidia and what type of fish they need to cocoon. He goes to the streams every few weeks to check on the Louisiana pearlshell mussels. He is looking for signs that they have glochidia. When he finds the glochidia, he will put them on different types of fish to see which one will grow the cocoons. Louisiana pearlshell mussels are a threatened species and are only found in two parishes in Louisiana.
Mr. Brady enjoys teaching children about mussels. If you’re a teacher, you can bring your class out for a tour and some
classroom activities. I asked Mr. Brady if he liked his job. He replied, “I love my job. I get to play with fish, go swimming, chase mussels and walk through the woods. There are a lot of good things about my job.” I had a lot of fun learning about mussels from someone who is excited about his subject.
Veronica Sturman
