Mussel Surveys

Our Services

Our services include mussel surveys, mussel monitoring surveys, endangered species surveys, mussel salvages and relocations, biological assessments, GIS mapping, and water quality monitoring. We specialize in big river dive surveys, but have the equipment, personnel, and expertise to work in any stream system, big or small.

Our experience includes more than 250 mussel surveys and over 25,000 hours spent in the field collecting mussels. We have collected and identified hundreds of thousands of mussels, including thousands of federally listed mussels.

We specialize in big river mussel surveys using commercial diving, but we also have the boats and dive equipment to work in any size stream system. We have several size boats available from large dive boats, to jet boats, to kayaks.

Our primary service area where we hold annual state mussel collecting permits include Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia. We have also worked and held state mussel collecting permits in Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Our federal USFWS mussel collecting permit covers most of the eastern and central US.

Endangered Species Surveys

Through the course of our mussel surveys we have encountered thousands of state and federally listed mussels.

The purpose of the majority of our mussel surveys is to determine if it is possible that state or federally listed mussel species could be present at a site.

We are routinely contracted to locate and collect federally listed mussel species to be used by state and federal propagation facilities. Our federal mussel permit allows us to collect, hold, and transport federally listed species in several states.

On several occasions we have assisted state agencies with restocking propagated federally listed juvenile mussels into their native stream systems.

Mussel Salvage and Relocation

Mussel salvages and relocations are necessary when impacts to mussels cannot be avoided, typically for construction projects, dredging, dredge disposal, water intakes, outfalls, pipeline projects, dock facilities, etc.

Our malacologists have extensive experience with mussel salvage and relocation projects. Our experience includes moving mussels from from large Ohio River areas covering over 20 acres down to small streams covering less than 100 square meters.

We have performed mussel salvages and relocations for private companies at hydroelectric facilities, mooring facilities, pipeline corridors, water intakes, outfalls, and for dredge projects. We have performed mussel salvages and relocations under contract to the federal government for navigation dredging operations, mooring cell repairs or replacements, navigation lock and dam projects, and construction projects.

Mussel Monitoring Surveys

Many construction projects, large scale fleeting operations, dredge disposal operations, etc. may have long term impacts to surrounding or downstream mussel communities. Many projects require either short-term or long-term mussel monitoring to evaluate the effects that the operations have on the mussel communities.

We have extensive experience performing mussel monitoring surveys for various large river operations. We have performed mussel monitoring surveys for private companies at hydroelectric facilities, mooring facilities, and for dredge projects. We have performed mussel monitoring surveys under contract to the federal government for navigation dredging and disposal operations, navigation lock and dam projects, dam removal projects, and construction projects.

GIS Mapping, Sidescan Sonar, Hydrographic Mapping

Lewis Environmental Consulting has teamed with Kentucky Hydrografx to offer clients a wide range of sonar mapping technologies.

Services Offered:

High resolution sidescan sonar imaging
Multibeam hydrographic mapping
Single-beam hydrographic mapping
Sub-meter DGPS mapping
RTK sub-centimeter DGPS mapping
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) flow modeling

Commercial Diving

Lewis Environmental Consulting has teamed with Aquatic Services, LLC for commercial diving services. We have contracted Aquatic Services to provide diving services throughout the entire mussel survey season each year in order to offer experienced, high quality service at a lower cost.

Aquatic Services, LLC offers a wide range of commercial diving services in addition to freshwater mussel surveys, including various types of underwater structure inspections, pipeline inspections, underwater cutting, underwater welding, salvage and recovery operations, contaminated diving, and various types of marine construction projects.