Bulking up mussels
Scientists grow mussels and replace them in their habitat to act as water quality monitors.
By SARA AGNEW of the Tribune’s staff
Published
Sunday, December 2, 2007 
Parker Eshelman photo Andy Roberts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully inserts mussels into the bottom of Silver Fork Creek.
Steve McMurray pulled on his hip waders and trudged through the brush, a white plastic pail swinging at his side. Water sloshed inside the container as McMurray bumped down a rocky path toward Silver Fork Creek in northern Boone County.
Behind him, his partner, Andy Roberts, held tight to a second pail as he navigated the uneven ground.
They were here a year ago, collecting female freshwater mussels from the creek. Now, the biologists are back, releasing offspring grown bigger in captivity than ever before.
McMurray reached into his pail, plucked out a 3-inch mussel and held it up to the light.
“These little guys are like the small-town kids who go out into the big world to do good,” he said.
McMurray, a resource scientist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, plunged his hand into the creek and pressed the young mussel into the muddy bottom. “Good luck,” he offered
Parker Eshelman photo Missouri Conservation Department biologist Steve McMurray holds a group of artificially grown and tagged juvenile mussels before releasing them in Silver Fork Creek north of Columbia.