By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Local scientists are working to preserve endangered brook floater mussels, rescued from the Suncook River after it changed its course in Epsom. The mussels are currently being housed at the Nashua National Fish Hatchery, and scientists hope to soon return them to the Suncook. (The Hooksett Banner/Nicholas Brown)

The geological event of the Suncook River eroding its banks and forging new ground has precipitated a series of ecological events that have captured the interests of local and regional scientists. The foremost event has been the rescue of endangered mussels, discovered en masse after the Suncook carved its new course.

About 1,150 brook floater mussels, which are on the state’s endangered species list, were collected from the vacated river bed near the site of the Old Mill Restaurant & Tavern in Epsom.

“There have been a few of them here and there,” state Fish and Game Department wildlife biologist Eric Orff said of the mussels. “They were known to be in the river in small amounts, but not to this degree at all.”

While discovery of so many of the mussels, which are also listed on the federal list of species of concern, was good news to biologists, what’s to become of them since the river’s change of mind has been a point of concern.

On May 15 and 16, surging floodwaters spurred erosion on a bank of the Suncook about a quarter mile south of Route 4.

The river bank gave way and the river quickly filled an active sand and gravel pit. Another breach occurred on the south side of the sand pit, and the river forged a new course before reconnecting to its original riverbed more than a mile down stream from the initial breach.

A day later, state environmental workers quickly labored to collect the struggling brook floaters, which were confined to small pools and contending with rising water temperatures, declining oxygen levels and higher ammonia levels, said Kyle Flanery, manager of the Nashua hatchery.

“I’m pretty happy now because they came in from pretty poor conditions,” said Flanery.

The condition of the mussels has been improving, said Flanery, as hatchery workers have been fielding advice from a West Virginia federal hatchery specializing in mussels.

The West Virginia hatchery has been mailing concentrated specialty algae to the Nashua location, which the local scientists have been reconstituting with water, blending, and feeding to the displaced mollusks.

On the advice of the West Virginians, local scientists have also spread the 1,150 mussels into nine troughs, where previously they were placed into only four.

“They seem to be feeling pretty good,” said Flanery. “They’ve been moving a lot more through the sand.”

Workers completed marking the mussels, using small white tags and Super Glue, on Friday, June 9.

While state Department of Environmental Services representatives have said many months of studies are needed to determine all the effects of the river’s change, time seems of the essence for the mussels.

“We don’t have time to do studies,” said Susi Von Oettingen, who joined the mussel recovery campaign from the New England district office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We have to get them back in the river.”

Von Oettingen said scientists have found two points for potential relocation upriver of the breach, as habitat in the sandpit or below is likely unsuitable for the mussels.

Von Oettingen said the mollusks seem to prefer a mix of rock and sand, and the sediment-filled water characterizing the river below the breach could potential suffocate the sensitive brook floaters.

Scientists are also hoping the new spots are still inhabited by the longnose dace, a small host fish that’s critical to the brook floater’s life cycle.

As of press time, high river waters prevented the mussels’ homecoming.