© Jonathan Quilter/The Columbus Dispatch
Anthony Sasson, freshwater conservation manager for the Nature Conservancy in Ohio, picks up a dead mussel in the Big Darby Creek at Prairie Oaks Metro Park.
Anthony Sasson, freshwater conservation manager for the Nature Conservancy in Ohio, picks up a dead mussel in the Big Darby Creek at Prairie Oaks Metro Park.
Biologists, mollusk experts and officials with state and federal agencies gathered Oct. 20 to talk about the mysterious die-off. They've been surveying the stream and collecting samples, but say it could be weeks before a cause is pinpointed.
In the meantime, the mollusks continue to die, leaving their empty shells strewn along the stream.
"This is one of the few last healthy rivers in America. If we lose that we're losing a key piece of our heritage," said John Tetzloff, president of the Darby Creek Association. "Mussels have been in decline for decades. ... It was a recipe for disaster and this is the disaster. This could be the end of Darby as we know it."
Mussels are immobile filter-feeders and are highly sensitive to environmental changes. That makes them "canaries in the coal mine" for various ecosystems tied to the Darby, Tetzloff said.
Comment: In other words, "natural variations mostly account for the cold weather, but global warming causes cold weather"? Global warming stopped years ago, and is itself a natural variation over the long term. Humanity better face it: the global climate is self-regulating, and ice ages happen regularly. The Gulf Stream would probably be a better phenomenon to analyze in this regard: Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow.