Mussel Survey & Relocation for Proposed Barge Fleeting Area
For a proposed construction permit request of a new barge fleet on the Ohio River, Mainstream was contracted to perform a mussel relocation at the proposed construction site.
The client was seeking permitting to install a barge fleet at the Illinois shore side by means of permanent spudded barges offshore with fleeted barges moored off the channel face. Due to the possibility of directly impacting mussels and their habitats in the location, the State of Illinois required that the footprints of the twenty-four (24) spuds be used, as well as using a 10-meter radius buffer around each footprint, to search for mussels by divers. All mussels found were relocated to an approved location at a sufficiently distant downstream site to prevent any future interference.
All federal and state listed mussels were aged, measured for shell length, and affixed with a unique identification tag by Mainstream's in-house Malacologist (mollusk biologist). All other unlisted mussel species were aged, measured, and "glitter-glued." These mussels were specifically marked for future monitoring surveys and will be immediately identifiable and differentiated from other mussels already in the area for the purpose of estimating the success of the relocation.