Agencies work to relocate, save native river mussels

In a cooperative effort by federal and state agencies, more than 5,000 Higgins eye mussels were relocated to the stretch of Mississippi between Pike Island and the Ford Dam and other locations to rescue them from invasive zebra mussels in September.

The Higgins eye mussels are a federally endangered species that once thrived in the Mississippi and many of its tributaries from Saint Louis to the Twin Cities. This year, almost all of the Higgins eyes pulled from cages in Lake Pepin, a widening of the Mississippi southeast of Red Wing, were encrusted with the invaders.

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St. Paul Mississippi River/Mussels get helping hand by Dennis Lien, Pioneer Press.