By Hunter Cresswell, The Low Down, October 12, 2020
Readers may have heard the phrase, “canaries in a coal mine,” but may not know that freshwater mussels in a body of water serve a similar purpose as those coal mine canaries.
On Sept. 26 a team of trained volunteers, recruited by Action Chelsea for the Respect of the Environment, waded waist-deep into Chelsea Creek near the intersection of Old Chelsea and Scott Roads to look for vulnerable freshwater mussels and found them.
(...)“These are important sentinel organisms, they can tell us about the ecosystem,” ACRE president and ecologist Stephen Woodley said.
“Whenever they disappear, you know that something is happening to the fish, the fish habitat or the mussels themselves,” Martel added.
https://www.lowdownonline.com/post/freshwater-mussels-found-in-chelsea-creek