After the announcement, Governor Riley was joined by Commissioner Barnett Lawley of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in returning snails to the river to help aid in clean water efforts.

“Through this unique program, we’re taking another step forward in cleaning up Alabama’s water, and we’re doing it naturally, the way God intended,” Governor Riley said. “By restoring millions of these snails and mussels, Alabamians will enjoy cleaner rivers, lakes and streams for years to come.”

Snails and mussels, which are also called mollusks, are considered nature’s vacuum cleaners. Snails eat algae that can literally choke a river if left algae growth is left uncontrolled. Mussels remove bacteria in the water. In fact, a three-inch mussel can filter more than 12 gallons of water a day.

“So imagine what happens when you add hundreds of millions of snails and mussels to our rivers and streams,” said Commissioner Lawley. “They’re a vital part of Alabama’s ecosystem and a natural, common sense way to make our rivers, lakes and streams cleaner.”

The Aquatic Biodiversity Center will both protect snail and mussel species and restore those species that are threatened with extinction. According to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, 67 mollusk species have become extinct over the past 80 years. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 183 Alabama lakes and streams are considered troubled bodies of water – far fewer than Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi, but still a concern for state officials.

The Biodiversity Center will first target the Coosa River at the Weiss Lake bypass in the Mobile River Basin because mollusk species in that basin are most at risk.

Federal and State Funds Made Biodiversity Center A Reality

In 2004, the Conservation Department’s Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries began efforts to establish an aquatic biodiversity center in Alabama. The $2 million program is part of a five-year State Wildlife Grant split equally between federal and state funds.

Federal dollars provided for freshwater species recovery historically have been very minimal, and consequently few aquatic species come off the list because the funding isn’t provided for their recovery.

“It isn’t that we lack the ability to recover many of these species, but we have never before received funding for this type of project,” said Stan Cook, chief of fisheries for the Conservation Department. Without serious efforts to promote recovery, future listing actions would have remained a very real possibility because Alabama has more freshwater species than any other state.

Alabama is seeking additional partnerships with federal agencies, non-profit organizations, watershed recovery groups, universities, public utilities and corporations to advance the Aquatic Biodiversity Center’s efforts. Alabama Power Company, Bass Pro Shops and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have already committed to partnering with the state on this project.

Aquatic Biodiversity Center Will Also Function As Research Center

While the Aquatic Biodiversity Center is dedicated to restoring Alabama’s mollusk populations, it will also serve as an important research center to come up with better ways to culture snails and mussels and return more of them to our rivers and streams. The more snails and mussels placed in the channel, the better they can help clean rivers and streams.

Each mussel reproduces by attaching its larvae to a host fish. After about four weeks, the juvenile mussel falls off the fish, and burrows into river and stream beds.

“Beyond these lifecycle questions, we want to focus on culturing snails and mussels to a larger size before their release to successfully keep them in Alabama’s waterways doing the job they’ve always done,” said Dr. Paul Johnson, program supervisor for the Aquatic Biodiversity Center. Dr. Johnson is the former director of the Tennessee Aquarium Research Institute and joined the program last October.

U.S. Government Gave Alabama the Land and Facilities for the Center

The Aquatic Biodiversity Center is located near Marion, Alabama in rural Perry County. The four-building complex sits on 36 acres near the Cahaba River and adjacent to the Marion State Fish Hatchery, Perry Lakes Park and The Nature Conservancy’s Barton’s Beach Preserve.

The facility includes three buildings with more than 7,500 square feet of space, a 4,300-square-foot administration building with office and laboratory space and approximately 30 acres of aquatic ponds.

The facility was operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Biological Resources Division as the Claude Harris National Aquaculture Research Center. In 1995, the USGS closed the facility, and the property was deeded to the State of Alabama from the U.S. Department of Interior in 1999.