“CONSERVATIONISTS have called for urgent action to curb illegal fishing that is threatening to push the freshwater pearl mussel into extinction.

Buglife, the invertebrate conservation trust, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) say the mussel, which can live for more than 100 years, is one of the most endangered molluscs in the world, and that illegal poaching and pollution issues in Scotland threaten its future.

Up to half of the world’s remaining population is believed to be found in Angus, the Cairngorms and the north-west of Scotland.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has warned EU member states need to step up efforts to prevent the extinction of a number of species, including the mussel, which it said was particularly threatened.

The mussel, exploited in the search for pearls, is now extinct in two-thirds of the 155 Scottish rivers it occupied a century ago.”

Source: Herald Scotland

Author: Martin Williams

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