SHOW ME YOUR MUSSEL

 By Senior Agent Scott Watson 

     No, it is not misspelled, I actually meant to spell it "mussel".  Any of you who have ever been around rivers or streams in north Louisiana have seen what I am talking about.  For those of you who haven't, a mussel is a shell that lives in freshwater streams.  There are several different species of mussels, with each having unique characteristics for identification.

     Until 1995, no one around here knew that the mussels had any monetary value.  In the summer of 1995, Northeast Louisiana was swarmed with resident and non-resident commercial fishermen searching for mussels, and man did they find them.  Some of these commercial fishermen were making over $2000 daily.  The only equipment needed was a flat boat to haul the mussels in.  The catch to gathering mussels was that you had to be properly licensed and only certain sizes of a few kinds were legal to harvest.  That is where the wildlife agent entered the picture.

     A large majority of wildlife agents in Northeast Louisiana were not hired until after 1995.  Therefore, we had no knowledge of the laws pertaining to musseling.  On August 22, 2002 Captain Johnny Ferrington changed our lack of knowledge.  Captain Ferrington got several agents from Regions Two and Four together for a one-day crash course on mussel identification and mussel regulations.

     We all met at the Bayou Macon Wildlife Management Area in East Carroll Parrish.  Sergeant Scott Matthews had put together a very informative presentation for us.  He showed videotape that he and other agents made while working the mussel fishermen in 1995.  He also made several different pamphlets.  The thing that impressed me most was a mussel that he had mounted on a board.  Sergeant Matthews said that the mussel weighed around 8 pounds and was worth about $8 per pound in 1995.  That is $56 for one mussel.  He said the he mussel fishermen hauled them out by the boatload.  Sergeant Larry May and Captain Ferrington spoke on different ways people were violating the mussel regulations.  Sr. Agent Darren Bruce also brought something important to the meeting.

     After the meeting, Region 4 Agents met at Mothiglam Bayou where we changed clothes and got some hands on experience.  We all agreed that Captain Ferrington looked right at home diving into that bayou.  We picked up all types of mussels, sizing them and comparing them to see who had the biggest mussel.  Captain Ferrington and Sergeant May identified them on demand and told us which ones brought the big bucks.  Sr. Agent Wayne Parker kept one of each of the mussels and made a display board for the Region 4 office in Ferriday.

     Even though I was not an agent in 1995 when all of the big money was made in mussel fishing, (I was trying), I do have a daily reminder of it.  You see the 14-foot aluminum boat that I work out of was seized from a commercial mussel fisherman with illegal mussels.  The guys in Region 4-B did not even know me then, and they were already doing me a favor.