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Introduction Voiceover: You are
listening to Season Six of

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Future Ecologies.

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Mendel Skulski: Welcome back.
Today we're wrapping up our

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sixth season with a very special
episode. With the help of guest

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producer Caitlin Kennedy, we're
taking you to the Emerald Isle

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of Ireland, and meeting an
easily overlooked creature that

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holds the history of a nation
within its shell. From the rise

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and collapse of heavy industry
to a bloody civil war, the

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riverbeds of Ireland have been
witness, and they tell a story

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of change and possibility
stretching far beyond any human

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lifetime. From Future Ecologies,
this is Mussel Memory.

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Introduction Voiceover: Broadcasting
from the unceded, shared and

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asserted territories of the
Musqueam, Squamish, and

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Tsleil-Waututh, this is Future
Ecologies – exploring the shape

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of our world through ecology,
design, and sound.

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Frank Mitchell: So these are all
the things you need whenever you

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have a team going out with you,
and one of the most important

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things is your life jacket.
Let's go on an adventure.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Who lives in a
river? Do you know? I certainly

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didn't. I've explored the
coastline, looking for starfish

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and crabs in rock pools, but I'd
never really perused a riverbed.

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That's all about to change.

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Frank Mitchell: Just watch your
step. You wouldn't drop into a

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hole or something.

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Caitlin Kennedy: We're in the
Ireland of legend, green mossy

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boulders tumbling down into a
fast flowing river full of

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tentacle-like ranunculus, which
provides endless hiding places

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for aquatic species. My guide,
Frank Mitchell, and I are

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wearing our life jackets, yes,
but also waders up to our

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chests. As we pick our way down
the banks, I imagine diving down

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and swimming amongst the very
creatures we're looking for.

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Frank Mitchell: If you come up
here here, and it's not easy for

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you to see them, and they're all
in there. And if you come on

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over here.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Frank passes me
the bathyscope, a traffic

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cone-shaped instrument with a
perspex pane for peering down to

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the riverbed. When my eyes
adjust to the shadow cutting

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through the surface of the
water, there they are —

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freshwater pearl mussels!

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Wow! There's loads of them!

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Frank Mitchell: See them in
there?

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Caitlin Kennedy: Oh yeah!

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Frank Mitchell: You see them
underneath the bark of the tree?

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Caitlin Kennedy: Until recently,
I had been oblivious to the

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existence of any river mussels,
but in 2021 I came to the

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Ballinderry River, which wends
its way through the rolling

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hills of County Tyrone in
Northern Ireland. I discovered a

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species whose existence was so
very different to my human life,

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I became a little obsessed.
Their lives are fascinating, a

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paradox of stillness and flux.
But more than anything, I wanted

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to understand why they're
struggling to survive in the

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rocky streams of Ireland.
Frank's life, like those of the

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creatures he cares for, is
deeply entwined with the

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Ballinderry River. Here he is
responsible for the longest

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Frank Mitchell: And I've been
here now for the last 30 years.

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running freshwater pearl mussel
breeding program in the world.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Frank spent his
youth fishing the Ballinderry's

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dappled banks and building weirs
out of sticks near its source.

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Frank Mitchell: I was born and
raised on the Ballinderry River.

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Caitlin Kennedy: But he never
imagined he'd now be working to

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save another creature that calls
the river home, or that it would

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be the longest-lived creature
anywhere in the UK and Ireland.

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In the time it's taken Frank's
hair to turn white, the oldest

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mussels in his care have grown
from less than a millimeter to

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the length of his hand, and
they'll continue growing for

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some time yet.

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Frank Mitchell: And I never
realized that I would be

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actually working on such an
interesting and important

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project with the freshwater
pearl mussels.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Every day for
the past three decades, Frank

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has arrived at work in his
overall and wellies, and

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traversed a bridge over the
river. When he opens the door to

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an abandoned-looking building,
he sees the familiar rows of

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long white ceramic tanks that
form a series of water channels

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through which the Ballinderry
River is diverted.

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Frank Mitchell: We're walking in
our breeding center where the

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river's coming through
naturally. So, we have to keep

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this clean, so that the mussels
that are dropping off here get

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every good chance of surviving
in the gravel.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Frank reaches
down into one of the makeshift

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riverbeds and stirs some
recently settled sediment back

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into the flow of the river.

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Frank Mitchell: And all I'm
doing here is just moving the

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silt off the gravel, trying to
keep it clean. So, if you get a

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look in here, you see all those
mussels there.

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Caitlin Kennedy: To my untrained
eye, what Frank has pulled out

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of the water looks like a
pebble. In their native habitat

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of rocky streams, it can be hard
to discern them, but these are

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freshwater pearl mussels. When I
say mussel, you might be

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imagining a small blue-black sea
mussel, but these mussel shells

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are rounder and a matte dark
brown color. They're much bigger

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than sea mussels, and don't
latch onto any rocks, just lie

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burrowed in the riverbed, making
them pretty hard to spot. You

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might see these frilly, pale
fronds poking out of the shells

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when they're feeding. These are
the mussel siphons, sort of an

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in tube and an out tube. One
siphon inhales the water from

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which they'll extract the food
they need, and the other

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releases water and any waste. At
that level, not so different

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from us... except that in a
mussel, they both emerge in the

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same place. And the same pipes
that are used for eating are

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also used for breathing... and
getting rid of waste... and

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reproducing.

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Oh, and did I mention that
freshwater pearl mussels live

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for 150 years? Some of the
oldest animals on the planet are

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in fact mollusks, like the
record-breaking black Quahog

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clam, who live for up to 500
years. Our Irish pearl mussels

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might not hold the title, but
they're still seriously

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long-lived, especially for their
size. It's mind-blowing to think

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that there are mussels alive
today who were born before the

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Titanic set sail.

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Frank Mitchell: I remember
seeing me first mussels when I

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was a young cub fishing along
the river. I didn't know an

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awful lot about them. It's no
real big deal to me, but when

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you start to work with them, and
you start to learn about them,

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and how important they are, and
then you go to a mussel site.

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The first muscle site I went to,
a real good one, was away down

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in Donegal and Galway. And when
I come across these big mussel

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sites, it's mind blowing.

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Caitlin Kennedy: This dense
population of mussels in a bend

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of the river might be a rarity
now, but it would have been a

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commonplace sight to Frank's
grandfather. By the 2010s, the

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mussel population in the
Ballindery had crashed by 90% in

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little more than a human
generation.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: I
think you would find some

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freshwater pearl mussels in most
rivers in Ireland, at one point.

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Caitlin Kennedy: I drove the
length of Ireland to meet Dr.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher, an
aquatic ecologist who worked on

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a freshwater pearl mussel
restoration project in County

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Kerry. It's a rugged coastal
region carved up by Atlantic sea

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lochs in the southwest corner of
the island.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: They're
present in Europe and also

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globally. So, they're a
worldwide species. On a global

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level, they're classified as
being endangered, but then on an

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Irish and European level,
they're critically endangered.

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Caitlin Kennedy: In Ireland,
populations are clinging on down

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the west coast, particularly
those rocky, hilly places that

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are harder to farm intensively
or build houses on —

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: from
Donegal all the way down to

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Cork,

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Caitlin Kennedy: but the reason
scientists like Mary Catherine

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have been working with
freshwater pearl mussels isn't

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just because they're endangered.
Freshwater pearl mussels are

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sometimes referred to as an
umbrella species. If you make

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conditions right for them,
everyone else in their vicinity

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benefits, including humans.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: They
will filter about 50 liters of

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water a day, that's what an
adult mussel can do. So, I've

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seen it written, like, you know,
the amount of water for a bath,

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which is an awful lot. And
they're filtering it, and

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obviously they're doing that, so
they can get food, but that

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action also has a cleaning
effect on the water. They also

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can remove pathogens that are
harmful to human health as well.

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Caitlin Kennedy: And as they
filter all matter flowing

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through the river, sometimes it
can give rise to the very thing

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that gives these mussels their
name.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: Some
mussels can contain a pearl.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Some, but not
many. Pearls aren't a standard

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part of the mussel's biology,
they're an accidental defense

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mechanism. So, despite their
name, you're actually only

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likely to find a pearl inside
one in 7000 mussels. Filter

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feeding mollusks have evolved to
prevent large debris from

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getting trapped inside their
shell and irritating the outer

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layers of their bodies. If
something does get trapped, the

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mussel has an ingenious
strategy. It secretes the same

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substance which lines their
shell gradually coating the

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object until smooth and rounded.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: It's
usually some sort of like a bit

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of sand or some sort of fragment
that's like foreign to the

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mussel, but it's actually almost
like an immunological response.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Almost like us
producing eye goo.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: Yes,
exactly, but a lot more

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beautiful.

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Caitlin Kennedy: This substance
is called nacre, or more

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commonly mother of pearl, and it
catches light with a kind of

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muted glow of colors. At the
microscopic level, highly

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ordered hexagonal bricks of
calcium carbonate tessellate and

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form layers. When visible light
enters, some wavelengths are

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trapped, whilst others scatter,
creating a pearlescent effect.

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Unfortunately, this has brought
the mussels a lot of unwanted

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attention. Throughout recorded
history, pearl fishers have

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scooped these vulnerable
mollusks out of river beds,

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opening them up in search of
treasure.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: And
because not every mussel

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contains a pearl, that could
mean hundreds of mussels being

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taken out of the river, opened
up, and if they didn't have a

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pearl, just being like discarded
on the river bank. That's

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obviously an illegal practice in
Ireland now as well.

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Caitlin Kennedy: Even when a
mussel lacks its eponymous

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pearl, the inside of its shell
is entrancing to look at. Some

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shell interiors have gold
streaks from iron-rich waters,

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some are more pink or blue,
depending on the metals nearby.

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Nacre is a bit of a super
substance, being stronger than

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steel and less brittle than the
limestone from which it's made.

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Material scientists have long
tried to replicate nacre's

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impressive ability to stop
cracks from forming in their

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tracks, a feat achieved by the
perfect alchemy of hard calcium

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carbonate bricks and soft silk
like proteins, which hold the

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layers together. Mussels can
even use nacre to glue

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themselves back together again.
If their shells get a little

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worn, they will simply lay down
more layers of nacre, gradually

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repairing the damage from the
inside out. And yet, living

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muscles never intentionally
display this mystical-looking

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substance to the outside world.
What Mary Catherine sees when

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conducting surveys is two matte
black shells kept almost

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completely shut, but as an
ecologist, she's come to

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appreciate them for far more
than their shiny nacre.

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: You'll
see the shells, and then you'll

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see the openings for the
siphons, but they're really

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beautiful, like especially the
inhaling siphon. It has these

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like frilly edges, I think it
depends on the situation, or on

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the lighting, maybe, but
sometimes it's kind of a grayish

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color, sometimes it's more of
like maybe a light pinky kind of

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color, and that's all you'll see
usually, and then inside it's

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just like, yeah, as like a
soft-bodied gloopy organism.

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Caitlin Kennedy: And what does a
gloopy organism encased in a

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shell need to live its best
life?

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: They
like really clean water. They

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like high oxygen levels. They
like what's called this

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Goldilocks flow, so it's kind of
like not too fast, not too slow,

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a very in the middle kind of
flow rate in the river. In terms

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of the substrate, or like the
river bottom, they like a kind

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00:14:22,450 --> 00:14:25,270
of a diversity, really. They
like some kind of bigger rocks

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and boulders, and then some
smaller sediments as well. It's

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nice if the river has little
riffles in it, so areas that are

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00:14:31,435 --> 00:14:35,245
really nice and well oxygenated.
It can be nice if the catchment

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00:14:35,245 --> 00:14:37,765
has, like, a lake higher up, so
that can kind of help to

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00:14:37,765 --> 00:14:41,845
stabilize the flow of water. Low
levels of nutrients, they don't

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00:14:41,845 --> 00:14:46,165
like, you know, eutrophic
waters. Basically clean, medium

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00:14:46,165 --> 00:14:50,275
level of flow, nice diversity in
the riverbed, good levels of

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oxygen.

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00:14:52,345 --> 00:14:53,650
Caitlin Kennedy: ...and fish?

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Mary Catherine Gallagher: And
fish! Of course! The fish are

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00:14:56,020 --> 00:14:58,120
really important. I always
forget about the fish, I'm so

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00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:01,240
focused on the mussels. But
obviously you have no mussels

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00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:02,500
without fish.

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00:15:02,500 --> 00:15:04,840
Caitlin Kennedy: This is the bit
about freshwater pearl mussels

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00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,560
that completely captivated me
when I first learned about them,

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because the beginning of their
life is just so wildly different

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00:15:12,010 --> 00:15:16,375
to the rest of their very long,
very sedentary years. See, a

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00:15:16,375 --> 00:15:20,215
freshwater pearl mussel larva
cannot survive without latching

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00:15:20,215 --> 00:15:23,575
on to the gills of a fish.

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00:15:23,570 --> 00:15:27,350
Frank Mitchell: Just checking on
me fish to see how they're

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00:15:27,380 --> 00:15:33,650
doing. They're doing okay. I'm
just going to lift out a fish

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00:15:33,650 --> 00:15:35,840
here, and I'm just going to take
a look at the gills of the fish,

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00:15:35,870 --> 00:15:39,350
just to see if there's any
mussels on them, or they're

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00:15:39,350 --> 00:15:43,340
starting to drop off. This, by
the way, doesn't do the fish any

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00:15:43,340 --> 00:15:47,225
harm, okay. You're not going to
see much. It's very hard to see

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00:15:47,225 --> 00:15:50,555
them, but there's a few wee
white specks there.

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00:15:50,555 --> 00:15:53,045
Caitlin Kennedy: As Frank gently
pulls back the little trout's

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00:15:53,045 --> 00:15:57,065
gill cover, I get a glimpse of
the white spots he's describing.

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00:15:57,065 --> 00:16:00,395
Really, it just looks like the
fish has some goo stuck on its

252
00:16:00,395 --> 00:16:05,765
gills, but each globule contains
1000s of larvae, and under a

253
00:16:05,765 --> 00:16:08,075
microscope each one looks like

254
00:16:08,075 --> 00:16:10,055
Mary Catherine Gallagher: Like a
miniature mussel, like a teeny

255
00:16:10,100 --> 00:16:10,820
tiny mussel.

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00:16:10,820 --> 00:16:14,420
Caitlin Kennedy: These are the
lucky few, the ones who beat the

257
00:16:14,420 --> 00:16:18,830
clock, because baby mussels, or
glochidia, to use their

258
00:16:18,830 --> 00:16:23,000
scientific name, have just 24
hours to latch onto the gills of

259
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:28,520
a salmon or trout. After that,
they perish. At this stage,

260
00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,570
they're extremely small, about a
third of the size of a grain of

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00:16:32,570 --> 00:16:33,230
sand.

262
00:16:33,275 --> 00:16:36,875
Unknown: And they're tiny, but
they are able to sense when a

263
00:16:36,875 --> 00:16:40,565
fish is nearby. So, a salmon or
a trout in Ireland are the two

264
00:16:40,565 --> 00:16:44,825
species that they like to attach
onto. They're basically kind of

265
00:16:44,825 --> 00:16:47,885
like floating around in the
water. When they sense that a

266
00:16:47,885 --> 00:16:50,375
salmon or trout is nearby, they
actually start opening and

267
00:16:50,375 --> 00:16:54,755
closing their shells, so it's
called snapping. And if they are

268
00:16:54,755 --> 00:16:58,700
lucky enough to be inhaled by
the fish and then pass over the

269
00:16:58,700 --> 00:17:02,360
gills, and if they happen to
snap at the right moment and

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00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:06,740
grab onto the gills, they can
stay there for nine months, and

271
00:17:06,740 --> 00:17:09,290
they go everywhere the fish
goes.

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00:17:09,290 --> 00:17:11,450
Caitlin Kennedy: For quite a
long time, I couldn't understand

273
00:17:11,450 --> 00:17:15,170
why evolution had resulted in
such a perilous obstacle course

274
00:17:15,170 --> 00:17:18,605
for the baby mussels, but the
more I spoke to Frank and Mary

275
00:17:18,605 --> 00:17:23,195
Katherine, the more it made
sense. Newly hatched microscopic

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00:17:23,195 --> 00:17:26,855
mussels are at huge risk of
predation, so their fish host

277
00:17:26,855 --> 00:17:31,025
becomes their mobile shelter.
But more crucially, if

278
00:17:31,025 --> 00:17:33,695
freshwater pearl mussels
dispersed their young just

279
00:17:33,695 --> 00:17:36,725
through the water, each
population would be washed

280
00:17:36,725 --> 00:17:40,025
further and further downstream
and quickly into the sort of

281
00:17:40,025 --> 00:17:44,360
slow sediment-laden water, they
can't tolerate. When they drop

282
00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:47,510
off the gills after nine months,
the chances are they'll be

283
00:17:47,510 --> 00:17:50,660
roughly in the same place they
started, or even a bit further

284
00:17:50,660 --> 00:17:54,110
upstream.

285
00:17:54,110 --> 00:17:57,350
This is actually quite a common
reproduction strategy in river

286
00:17:57,350 --> 00:18:01,460
mussels, and some are much more
aggressive about it. In the US,

287
00:18:01,460 --> 00:18:05,525
pocketbook mussels have evolved
a natural lure that looks just

288
00:18:05,525 --> 00:18:09,185
like a tiny fish. An adult
pocketbook will bait an

289
00:18:09,185 --> 00:18:13,115
unsuspecting predator near its
open shell and then clamp shut,

290
00:18:13,115 --> 00:18:16,835
trapping the fish for up to an
hour, whilst it blasts the gills

291
00:18:16,835 --> 00:18:21,815
with larvae. Our Irish pearl
mussels are tame in comparison,

292
00:18:21,815 --> 00:18:24,515
Ecologists have battled whether
to call this relationship

293
00:18:24,515 --> 00:18:29,120
parasitic or symbiotic. It is
clear that having mussel larvae

294
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:33,680
attached to your gills does give
you a bit of a disadvantage, so

295
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:38,000
infected fish end up smaller
than uninfected fish, but in

296
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,540
cleaning the river, it's also
likely that the mussels create

297
00:18:41,540 --> 00:18:44,690
an ideal habitat for fish
spawning.

298
00:18:44,690 --> 00:18:48,230
Newly educated, I reckoned it
was time to try and find some

299
00:18:48,230 --> 00:18:50,180
mussels by myself.

300
00:18:54,815 --> 00:19:01,895
I'm looking for pearl mussels in
this river in Kerry...

301
00:19:01,810 --> 00:19:05,470
A word on looking for mussels,
you actually have to have a

302
00:19:05,470 --> 00:19:08,620
license from the National Parks
and Wildlife Service to do what

303
00:19:08,620 --> 00:19:12,460
I'm doing, because of how
endangered these mollusks are.

304
00:19:12,460 --> 00:19:17,140
Swimming or fishing, fine-ish —
there are some pretty mad laws

305
00:19:17,140 --> 00:19:20,770
here about riverbed ownership.  
But these mussels' habitats are

306
00:19:20,770 --> 00:19:23,980
super fragile right now, so
please don't go grabbing your

307
00:19:24,025 --> 00:19:26,845
nearest bathyscope without a
licensed professional.

308
00:19:28,765 --> 00:19:34,705
Oh! Hello, Blackbird. ...But
it's quite tricky here because

309
00:19:34,705 --> 00:19:40,705
the rocks are very dark, so they
hide the muscles very well, so

310
00:19:40,705 --> 00:19:50,320
I'm just looking for signs of
them, like a siphon. Definitely

311
00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:57,310
no mussels there. Oh, there's
some very rapidly moving trout.

312
00:19:57,310 --> 00:20:01,690
God, they've got places to go.
From what Mary Catherine and

313
00:20:01,690 --> 00:20:07,420
Frank said, they like a kind of
dappled space, so I'm looking

314
00:20:07,420 --> 00:20:13,435
under trees, and it's tricky,
because whilst I want to get

315
00:20:13,435 --> 00:20:18,955
close, I don't want to drop my
audio recorder in. There's

316
00:20:18,955 --> 00:20:25,615
definitely a lot of trout and
waterboatmen, but not a lot of

317
00:20:25,615 --> 00:20:26,605
mussels.

318
00:20:28,550 --> 00:20:30,920
Mary Catherine Gallagher: Yeah,
they were at one point really

319
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:35,060
widespread and really numerous.
Their range in general over the

320
00:20:35,060 --> 00:20:39,020
past few reporting cycles isn't
really contracting much, so they

321
00:20:39,020 --> 00:20:41,240
can still be quite widespread,
but it's the numbers in the

322
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,090
populations that are really
declining. So we have a lot of

323
00:20:44,090 --> 00:20:47,660
kind of like little remnant
populations or populations that

324
00:20:47,660 --> 00:20:50,165
are sort of functionally
extinct, so there's adults there

325
00:20:50,165 --> 00:20:54,065
but they're not managing to
reproduce successfully, and

326
00:20:54,065 --> 00:20:55,475
there's no juvenile recruitment.

327
00:20:55,450 --> 00:21:00,970
Caitlin Kennedy: To make sense
of this drastic decline, we need

328
00:21:00,970 --> 00:21:04,270
to emerge from the surface of
the stream and look around at

329
00:21:04,270 --> 00:21:09,130
the Ireland visible before us.
From this vantage point, we see

330
00:21:09,130 --> 00:21:12,250
that the bank has been
completely cleared on one side,

331
00:21:12,250 --> 00:21:16,570
giving an open view of a field
of cows, some ambling down the

332
00:21:16,570 --> 00:21:21,295
bank to drink directly from the
river. Beyond the field are the

333
00:21:21,295 --> 00:21:26,095
Laggan hills, almost entirely
bare, except for three perfect

334
00:21:26,095 --> 00:21:30,685
rectangles of monoculture pine
plantation. The river, too, has

335
00:21:30,685 --> 00:21:34,285
artificially straight lines
where it's been channeled. On

336
00:21:34,285 --> 00:21:37,555
the other bank, through the
boughs of a few small trees, a

337
00:21:37,555 --> 00:21:41,365
tractor spreads herbicide on the
marshy land, getting rid of the

338
00:21:41,365 --> 00:21:47,290
rushes for a field of grazing
sheep. My dad grew up in

339
00:21:47,290 --> 00:21:51,730
Ireland, so we visited every
year. He and I both agreed this

340
00:21:51,730 --> 00:21:56,650
view is far from unusual, and
it's not just visually a tidied

341
00:21:56,650 --> 00:22:00,610
landscape. London's Natural
History Museum created a

342
00:22:00,610 --> 00:22:05,245
biodiversity intactness index to
measure ecosystem health. The

343
00:22:05,245 --> 00:22:09,085
index has since been adopted by
the United Nations to tell which

344
00:22:09,085 --> 00:22:13,735
countries are most nature
depleted. Out of 240 countries

345
00:22:13,735 --> 00:22:19,405
on the index, Northern Ireland
ranks 13th... from the bottom.

346
00:22:19,405 --> 00:22:23,815
The Republic of Ireland ranks
only one place above. How did

347
00:22:23,815 --> 00:22:28,480
this happen? How did this island
come to be so desperately nature

348
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:44,920
depleted? When Frank was growing
up in the 1950s, things actually

349
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:45,940
looked pretty different

350
00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:48,730
Frank Mitchell: To me, those
were good days, and the river

351
00:22:48,910 --> 00:22:53,065
always seemed healthy and doing
well. Spent a lot of me time

352
00:22:53,725 --> 00:22:57,865
playing, fishing. Those days you
didn't have money to buy a

353
00:22:57,985 --> 00:22:58,765
fishing rod or nothing.

354
00:22:59,065 --> 00:23:01,435
Caitlin Kennedy: So older
fishermen would give young Frank

355
00:23:01,435 --> 00:23:05,695
some bait to tie to his hazel
stick, and that kept him happy.

356
00:23:05,695 --> 00:23:09,325
Although other forms of life,
like mussels, were of little

357
00:23:09,325 --> 00:23:10,705
consequence to him.

358
00:23:10,705 --> 00:23:12,715
Frank Mitchell: I remember
seeing mussels when I was a cub

359
00:23:12,775 --> 00:23:17,140
out fishing, but I never really
paid much attention to it. To

360
00:23:17,140 --> 00:23:18,460
me, it was just a shell.

361
00:23:19,060 --> 00:23:21,970
Caitlin Kennedy: There are few
habitat records from the 50s,

362
00:23:21,970 --> 00:23:26,380
but mussels were undoubtedly
more numerous than they are now.

363
00:23:26,380 --> 00:23:28,540
Frank Mitchell: In my time, when
I'm working with 'em, and I've

364
00:23:28,540 --> 00:23:32,200
been working with 'em around 30
years, their profile has lifted

365
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:36,790
well up from the 50s and 60s,
where they really weren't

366
00:23:36,790 --> 00:23:39,295
protected. Like, I mean, they
still had men coming out,

367
00:23:39,295 --> 00:23:43,015
poaching, looking for these
pearls.

368
00:23:43,015 --> 00:23:45,805
Caitlin Kennedy: Those men would
sit in glass-bottomed boats to

369
00:23:45,805 --> 00:23:50,305
search the riverbed for telltale
frilly siphons. From there, they

370
00:23:50,305 --> 00:23:54,475
could easily reach in and scoop
the large shells out, crack them

371
00:23:54,475 --> 00:23:59,560
open, and hope for a pearl. And
for every pearl they'd find, at

372
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:05,110
least 5000 mussels would pay
with their lives. But despite

373
00:24:05,110 --> 00:24:08,260
Frank's early love of the
outdoors, he couldn't have

374
00:24:08,260 --> 00:24:11,950
imagined working in nature
protection. It just wasn't a job

375
00:24:11,950 --> 00:24:16,150
in those days. People in the 50s
and 60s still thought of nature

376
00:24:16,150 --> 00:24:21,100
as a bottomless resource.
Besides, Frank had a humble

377
00:24:21,100 --> 00:24:22,090
start in life.

378
00:24:22,660 --> 00:24:26,575
Frank Mitchell: I never had any
real big desire to be anything

379
00:24:26,575 --> 00:24:30,655
special, you know. My role in
life was, because I had no

380
00:24:30,655 --> 00:24:35,185
qualification, was to just get a
job, keep out of trouble, keep

381
00:24:35,185 --> 00:24:35,545
busy.

382
00:24:36,740 --> 00:24:39,470
Caitlin Kennedy: At age 15,
Frank got a job in the local

383
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,630
textiles factory, an incredibly
common trajectory for young boys

384
00:24:43,690 --> 00:24:47,350
and girls of that era. Everyone
in Northern Ireland knows

385
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:48,910
someone who worked in textiles.

386
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:51,700
Frank Mitchell: I mean, I
remember making lovely fancy

387
00:24:51,700 --> 00:24:55,630
silk shirts, silk clothes. Bell
bottoms was a big thing in my

388
00:24:55,630 --> 00:24:57,850
time here. You'd have loved it!

389
00:24:57,850 --> 00:25:00,820
Caitlin Kennedy: It's true.
Frank and I both have a passion

390
00:25:00,820 --> 00:25:05,170
for flashy shirt and snazzy
trousers. But the era of

391
00:25:05,170 --> 00:25:08,740
opportunity couldn't last
forever, and though Frank tried

392
00:25:08,740 --> 00:25:13,765
to avoid it, trouble was on the
horizon for people and mussels.

393
00:25:15,625 --> 00:25:19,585
Mendel Skulski: We'll pick up
this thread when we come back —

394
00:25:19,585 --> 00:25:20,335
after the break.

395
00:25:24,685 --> 00:25:29,245
And we're back. I'm Mendel. This
is Future Ecologies. And on

396
00:25:29,245 --> 00:25:32,995
today's show, producer Caitlin
Kennedy is tracing the modern

397
00:25:32,995 --> 00:25:36,760
arc of Northern Ireland through
the story of the freshwater

398
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:38,380
pearl mussel.

399
00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:41,840
Caitlin Kennedy: It's the 70s.
Frank is living out his snappily

400
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:45,380
dressed youth in the textile
factory, having put aside his

401
00:25:45,380 --> 00:25:49,610
love for the river for now. But
as we're about to discover, its

402
00:25:49,610 --> 00:25:53,690
health will become central to
his story and that of Ireland's

403
00:25:53,690 --> 00:25:56,330
freshwater pearl mussels.

404
00:25:56,300 --> 00:25:59,900
Textiles, rivers, and the people
that work the land are so

405
00:25:59,900 --> 00:26:02,990
inextricably linked on the
island of Ireland, that the

406
00:26:02,990 --> 00:26:07,250
Dublin Customs House building,
built in the 1780s, features a

407
00:26:07,250 --> 00:26:10,670
weathered figure crowned by
pearls and wearing a turban of

408
00:26:10,670 --> 00:26:15,710
flax plant. This statue is the
spirit of the Bann River, and it

409
00:26:15,710 --> 00:26:19,880
shows two core tenets of the
Irish economy at the time — flax

410
00:26:19,940 --> 00:26:23,795
and pearls. This makes sense,
because in the 18th and 19th

411
00:26:23,795 --> 00:26:27,695
century, freshwater pearl
mussels were prevalent. They

412
00:26:27,695 --> 00:26:31,055
would have been in most Irish
rivers and streams in the rocky,

413
00:26:31,055 --> 00:26:35,315
fast-flowing upper sections. As
evidence, we can find their

414
00:26:35,315 --> 00:26:39,245
namesake pearls in folk stories
and mythology from across the

415
00:26:39,245 --> 00:26:44,540
island. To understand Ireland's
past, especially its historic

416
00:26:44,540 --> 00:26:48,050
relationship with land and
water, I needed to venture back

417
00:26:48,050 --> 00:26:52,790
to when storytelling reigned
supreme. So I drove to Átha Í,

418
00:26:52,790 --> 00:26:56,660
near Dublin, on the east of the
island to meet a folklorist by

419
00:26:56,660 --> 00:26:58,610
the name of Stiofán Cullen.

420
00:26:58,610 --> 00:27:02,810
Stiofán Cullen: My name is
Stiofán. I am primarily a

421
00:27:02,810 --> 00:27:05,030
storyteller, also a folklorist.

422
00:27:05,375 --> 00:27:09,095
Caitlin Kennedy: Had they been
born pre 500 BC, Stiofán would

423
00:27:09,095 --> 00:27:13,535
definitely have held the revered
position of celebrated bard.

424
00:27:13,535 --> 00:27:17,075
They're a performer through and
through. They're also a firm

425
00:27:17,075 --> 00:27:20,555
believer that the stories told
then shouldn't be sugar-coated

426
00:27:20,555 --> 00:27:23,285
to retain relevance in today's
world.

427
00:27:23,285 --> 00:27:26,645
Stiofán Cullen: There's a few
different aspects to the pearl.

428
00:27:26,645 --> 00:27:31,580
Water in general, rivers, lakes,
the sea, wells, they all have

429
00:27:31,580 --> 00:27:36,350
strong association with all
aspects of folklore, because

430
00:27:36,350 --> 00:27:41,270
they're a food source, first of
all, and they're also dangerous.

431
00:27:41,270 --> 00:27:45,410
You shouldn't go out to the
water on certain days or go near

432
00:27:45,410 --> 00:27:49,490
the water on certain days,
because the dead will emerge and

433
00:27:49,490 --> 00:27:54,125
drag you down, or the fairies
will emerge and drag you down,

434
00:27:54,425 --> 00:27:59,555
because of how common it was for
people to drown.

435
00:27:59,555 --> 00:28:03,395
There's a few stories where
children have gone out gathering

436
00:28:03,395 --> 00:28:06,485
pearls, and then later will
commit some kind of

437
00:28:06,485 --> 00:28:09,485
transgression, and when they
speak, they're not able to form

438
00:28:09,485 --> 00:28:14,105
words, all that comes out of
their mouth is more pearls.

439
00:28:26,810 --> 00:28:29,840
The oldest legal system in
Europe, composed by the native

440
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:34,040
Irish people. There are laws in
there on what we would call

441
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:38,495
today natural conservation.
There are laws on when you can

442
00:28:38,495 --> 00:28:42,455
fell certain trees, how many of
each kind of tree you can fell

443
00:28:42,455 --> 00:28:45,845
at a time, and what the
penalties for felling them in

444
00:28:45,845 --> 00:28:50,165
the wrong season or at the wrong
age would be. There's also

445
00:28:50,165 --> 00:28:54,695
similar laws on overfishing,
what you take from the water,

446
00:28:54,695 --> 00:28:59,255
what you take from rivers and
the sea. We've had all of this

447
00:28:59,255 --> 00:29:04,400
very extractive agricultural
process kind of imposed on us

448
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,000
that we now see as the norm, and
an important aspect of

449
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,170
indigeneity is connection to the
land and having a kind of

450
00:29:12,170 --> 00:29:16,220
reciprocal relationship with the
land.

451
00:29:16,210 --> 00:29:18,340
Caitlin Kennedy: I found it hard
to pinpoint when habitat

452
00:29:18,340 --> 00:29:22,840
destruction really started in
Ireland. After all, the ancient

453
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:26,980
Picts, Britons, and Gaels, they
were already clearing forests

454
00:29:26,980 --> 00:29:30,910
and draining wetlands well
before the Anglo-Saxons arrived.

455
00:29:30,910 --> 00:29:33,910
But the pressure on rivers
definitely did ramp up with the

456
00:29:33,910 --> 00:29:38,530
arrival of the English in the
1600s and it accelerated with an

457
00:29:38,530 --> 00:29:41,935
industrial land use that came to
be at the core of Northern Irish

458
00:29:41,935 --> 00:29:47,515
identity — linen textile mills.
If you read about Ireland before

459
00:29:47,515 --> 00:29:50,515
the republic gained
independence, two things leap

460
00:29:50,515 --> 00:29:55,525
out from the annals of history —
linen and the famine. Despite

461
00:29:55,525 --> 00:29:58,795
England's pivotal role in both,
I was actually never taught

462
00:29:58,795 --> 00:30:04,090
about either at school. In the
1860s, Ireland was hit by a

463
00:30:04,090 --> 00:30:08,320
potato blight that destroyed the
staple food of its agricultural

464
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,220
workers, killing more than a
million people in one of the

465
00:30:12,220 --> 00:30:16,570
worst famines ever seen in
Europe. Many, many more were

466
00:30:16,570 --> 00:30:20,440
forced to emigrate. The British
still controlled Ireland in its

467
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:24,670
entirety, and their brutal
policies of denying aid and

468
00:30:24,670 --> 00:30:28,945
forcing export of everything
else the country grew really did

469
00:30:28,945 --> 00:30:32,515
increase the death toll. So, the
only thing people had to sell

470
00:30:32,515 --> 00:30:33,805
was their land.

471
00:30:33,805 --> 00:30:36,235
Sebastian Graham: A lot of the
changes to society happened

472
00:30:36,235 --> 00:30:37,495
after the famine.

473
00:30:37,495 --> 00:30:40,075
Caitlin Kennedy: This is
Sebastian Graham, a historian

474
00:30:40,075 --> 00:30:41,665
with Ireland Heritage.

475
00:30:41,665 --> 00:30:45,115
Sebastian Graham: We weren't too
badly off up here in Ulster with

476
00:30:45,115 --> 00:30:48,055
the famine, but in other areas
those rural areas really

477
00:30:48,100 --> 00:30:51,670
suffered, and that's why these
mills are so important for the

478
00:30:51,670 --> 00:30:54,430
rural areas that they kept
people from going off to

479
00:30:54,430 --> 00:30:58,600
emigrate. They developed their
own community around the place,

480
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,960
and after the famine, you had
the rapid industrialisation,

481
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,740
investing in machinery, plenty
of workforce, wages were low,

482
00:31:05,740 --> 00:31:08,380
and they could export quite a
lot of their produce.

483
00:31:08,380 --> 00:31:12,055
Caitlin Kennedy: Sebastian and I
meet at one of the last mills in

484
00:31:12,055 --> 00:31:15,505
Northern Ireland to cease
production, closing down in just

485
00:31:15,595 --> 00:31:19,495
2015. Approaching through the
woodland that has quickly

486
00:31:19,495 --> 00:31:23,095
encircled the red brick
buildings, you can hardly tell

487
00:31:23,095 --> 00:31:27,025
this was a hive of industry, but
Sebastian tells me that 180

488
00:31:27,025 --> 00:31:30,835
years ago this mill would have
been as loud and bustling as the

489
00:31:30,835 --> 00:31:32,935
cities it provided for.

490
00:31:32,900 --> 00:31:35,780
Sebastian Graham: So we're in
Upperlands, which is a historic

491
00:31:35,780 --> 00:31:39,800
mill village just outside
Maghera, in County Londonderry.

492
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,250
It was one of these mill
villages that sprung up in the

493
00:31:43,250 --> 00:31:47,510
1700s where you could have a job
and a mill, you'd have your

494
00:31:47,510 --> 00:31:51,080
terrace house, you would have
your school, you'd have

495
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,000
everything real close to you.

496
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,805
Caitlin Kennedy: In a feat of
cartography not seen since sea

497
00:31:55,805 --> 00:32:00,125
monsters inhabited the earth,
Sebastian has mapped all four

498
00:32:00,125 --> 00:32:03,395
and a half thousand mills across
Northern Ireland.

499
00:32:03,425 --> 00:32:05,555
Sebastian Graham: Bloody mills
everywhere.

500
00:32:05,555 --> 00:32:08,165
Caitlin Kennedy: As we walk
towards the old abandoned mill,

501
00:32:08,165 --> 00:32:12,065
we're surrounded on all sides by
woodland that has sprung up in

502
00:32:12,065 --> 00:32:16,535
the past 10 years as nature
reclaims the site, populated by

503
00:32:16,535 --> 00:32:20,240
swallows, swifts, and small
mammals who've made their homes

504
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,190
in the remnants of the mill.

505
00:32:22,190 --> 00:32:22,790
Sebastian Graham: Isn't that
amazing

506
00:32:23,150 --> 00:32:23,900
Caitlin Kennedy: Big old lake!

507
00:32:23,900 --> 00:32:26,780
Sebastian Graham: Big big lake.
So, again, like this landscape

508
00:32:26,780 --> 00:32:29,750
looks natural, but it's
completely man-made. There were

509
00:32:29,750 --> 00:32:33,800
no lakes here at all, and it was
just essentially created to

510
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,050
power the mills.

511
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,420
Caitlin Kennedy: We pause an art
deco facade, which must have

512
00:32:39,420 --> 00:32:43,470
been an entrance to the new
mill. It's a picture of faded

513
00:32:43,470 --> 00:32:49,140
grandeur with 1929 emblazoned
into the masonry. Sebastian told

514
00:32:49,140 --> 00:32:53,940
me that the 1920s marked the
peak of linens' desirability,

515
00:32:53,940 --> 00:32:58,230
especially for England's upper
class. Think crisp white linen

516
00:32:58,230 --> 00:33:03,015
suits and tennis attire worn on
holiday in the French Riviera.

517
00:33:03,015 --> 00:33:06,615
This building would probably
have heralded a glamorous age of

518
00:33:06,615 --> 00:33:11,775
mechanized progress, as the mill
clothed London's elite. I follow

519
00:33:11,775 --> 00:33:15,135
his gaze to the side of the
clock, and spot two flared

520
00:33:15,135 --> 00:33:19,365
sheaths of linen textile, like
the tassels on fancy curtains.

521
00:33:19,365 --> 00:33:21,945
Sebastian Graham: I just love
these linen swags, you know. You

522
00:33:21,945 --> 00:33:26,070
see that a lot of buildings in
Belfast, so cool the way they've

523
00:33:26,070 --> 00:33:31,620
incorporated that here. Yeah,
it's like a plaster motif. You

524
00:33:31,620 --> 00:33:35,310
get them in a lot of those '20s,
'30s buildings. You know, the

525
00:33:35,310 --> 00:33:39,840
flax flour is actually the
symbol for Northern Ireland, but

526
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:41,970
no one really knows that
anymore, because it's the

527
00:33:41,970 --> 00:33:43,680
industry's dead and buried.

528
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,110
Caitlin Kennedy: Later on, a
walk, I find the real deal

529
00:33:46,155 --> 00:33:50,325
growing at the edge of a field.
Flax is a beautiful plant. It

530
00:33:50,325 --> 00:33:54,465
has a long straight stem and
periwinkle blue flowers with

531
00:33:54,465 --> 00:33:58,755
five rounded petals that
coalesce round a yellow center,

532
00:33:58,755 --> 00:34:02,295
but according to Sebastian, in
contrast to the plant, the

533
00:34:02,295 --> 00:34:06,435
process of manufacturing linen
was not pretty at all.

534
00:34:06,435 --> 00:34:08,205
Sebastian Graham: For linen
manufacture, you pull it from

535
00:34:08,205 --> 00:34:13,470
the field, and then you put it
under water for about 14 days,

536
00:34:13,470 --> 00:34:15,450
and that's the retting process.

537
00:34:15,450 --> 00:34:18,150
Caitlin Kennedy: Retting is a
kind of fermentation that

538
00:34:18,150 --> 00:34:21,750
separates the tough, woody
exterior of the plant from the

539
00:34:21,750 --> 00:34:25,860
supple, desirable fibers within,
but the water left behind...

540
00:34:25,860 --> 00:34:28,140
Sebastian Graham: is the most
smelly, horrible stuff.

541
00:34:28,140 --> 00:34:30,240
Scientifically, there's wee
bacteria changing the whole

542
00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:33,285
nature of the plant, but
unfortunately, a lot of the flax

543
00:34:33,285 --> 00:34:36,825
ponds release that water back
into the into the rivers. And

544
00:34:36,825 --> 00:34:39,615
we're not talking one or two
farms, we're talking about 70%

545
00:34:39,615 --> 00:34:43,305
of farmers at the time in the
1800s doing it.

546
00:34:43,305 --> 00:34:45,885
Caitlin Kennedy: This
deoxygenated, alcohol-rich

547
00:34:46,005 --> 00:34:50,325
slough spelled disaster for
river dwellers. The pearl

548
00:34:50,325 --> 00:34:53,985
mussels filtering this toxic
liquid would have struggled, but

549
00:34:53,985 --> 00:34:56,850
so would the fish they depend on
for reproduction.

550
00:34:56,850 --> 00:34:59,070
Sebastian Graham: Because of the
fact that it's deoxygenated,

551
00:34:59,070 --> 00:35:03,570
that'll just kill everything out
for miles downstream. The

552
00:35:03,570 --> 00:35:06,390
bleaching of linen would have
also had a detrimental impact

553
00:35:06,390 --> 00:35:07,140
too.

554
00:35:07,140 --> 00:35:09,630
Caitlin Kennedy: As linen supply
and demand ballooned, the

555
00:35:09,630 --> 00:35:13,200
pressure on rivers increased.
And although drinking water was

556
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,380
affected as well, and measures
were brought in to prevent the

557
00:35:16,380 --> 00:35:21,255
worst toxic releases, little was
done to enforce them. Then came

558
00:35:21,255 --> 00:35:25,035
two world wars, and linen was
needed for everything —

559
00:35:25,035 --> 00:35:29,865
parachutes, cords, uniforms,
bags, you name it. It contained

560
00:35:29,865 --> 00:35:30,585
linen,

561
00:35:30,585 --> 00:35:32,835
Sebastian Graham: I think
Churchill stated about, without

562
00:35:32,835 --> 00:35:35,715
linen, there would have been no
victory. Even the king and

563
00:35:35,715 --> 00:35:38,835
queen, they had part of their
land in Sandringham, dedicated

564
00:35:38,835 --> 00:35:42,480
to flax growing, because it was
needed in massive quantities for

565
00:35:42,660 --> 00:35:44,190
just everything you can think
of, really.

566
00:35:44,750 --> 00:35:47,270
Caitlin Kennedy: The war might
have been one on linen, but it

567
00:35:47,270 --> 00:35:51,500
would also be its downfall. Huge
technological leaps brought in

568
00:35:51,500 --> 00:35:53,630
the age of plastic.

569
00:35:53,630 --> 00:35:55,850
Archival Radio: Sometimes I
think you love nylon better than

570
00:35:55,910 --> 00:35:56,330
you do me.

571
00:35:56,930 --> 00:35:58,790
The two loves of my life,

572
00:35:58,820 --> 00:36:02,150
In style, they're a classic, but
they're made of the latest thing

573
00:36:02,390 --> 00:36:04,280
— woven texturized polyester.

574
00:36:04,670 --> 00:36:08,915
To look neat in the fall, look
for Dacron on the label, because

575
00:36:09,035 --> 00:36:15,725
Dacron is a man's best friend. A
man looks so smart in suits that

576
00:36:15,725 --> 00:36:19,895
are able to stay wrinkle-free
and neat, in winter cold and

577
00:36:19,895 --> 00:36:24,305
winter sleet. A man's at his
best when he looks well dressed,

578
00:36:24,305 --> 00:36:29,795
wearing suits that have Dacron
in the blend. And the colors and

579
00:36:29,795 --> 00:36:34,700
styling will sure keep him
smiling. Dacron is a man's best

580
00:36:34,700 --> 00:36:38,300
friend. Thanks to Decron, by
DuPont!

581
00:36:39,410 --> 00:36:42,350
Caitlin Kennedy: So, by the time
Frank was 15 and off to work.

582
00:36:42,350 --> 00:36:45,830
Textile manufacturing was still
the main source of employment,

583
00:36:45,830 --> 00:36:50,300
but increasingly the factories
were working with rayon, nylon,

584
00:36:50,300 --> 00:36:54,320
and polyester. But though linen
bleaching and retting was in

585
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:58,550
decline across these lands, the
creatures of the river were far

586
00:36:58,550 --> 00:37:03,005
from safe. After the war,
Britain and Ireland went into

587
00:37:03,005 --> 00:37:06,935
agricultural overdrive. The
pressure was on to rebuild and

588
00:37:06,935 --> 00:37:11,465
regrow. The post-war farming
intensification was actually

589
00:37:11,465 --> 00:37:15,455
going to be the mussels' biggest
threat yet.

590
00:37:15,455 --> 00:37:19,865
I feel like Ireland today is a
microcosm of what has gone wrong

591
00:37:19,865 --> 00:37:24,305
with our relationship with the
land. Overly intensive

592
00:37:24,305 --> 00:37:28,910
agriculture and forestry have
put productivity over planetary

593
00:37:28,910 --> 00:37:33,740
capabilities in so many parts of
the world. There's a disconnect

594
00:37:33,740 --> 00:37:37,820
between people, intact habitats,
and the cultural knowledge which

595
00:37:37,820 --> 00:37:42,110
once tied us all together. It
can make it quite hard to trace

596
00:37:42,110 --> 00:37:46,670
the origins of ecological harms,
so when I asked Mary Catherine

597
00:37:46,670 --> 00:37:50,615
what has impacted the mussels
most, I was actually surprised

598
00:37:50,615 --> 00:37:54,335
to hear that the biggest problem
they face aren't the usual river

599
00:37:54,335 --> 00:37:58,505
pollution culprits of chemicals
and excess nutrients, although

600
00:37:58,505 --> 00:38:02,765
these definitely don't help,
it's sediment from soil erosion.

601
00:38:02,910 --> 00:38:03,960
Mary Catherine Gallagher: Yeah,
so there's like a bunch of

602
00:38:03,990 --> 00:38:07,830
different reasons you might have
livestock entering a river, and

603
00:38:08,130 --> 00:38:10,710
that activity, and like the
trampling within the river, will

604
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,580
cause sedimentation. Then there
are things that are happening on

605
00:38:14,670 --> 00:38:18,690
the land, so for example, if you
have too many animals stocked in

606
00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:21,680
a field, they're going to over
graze, they're going to create

607
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:25,670
poaching and areas of bare soil,
and then when you have periods

608
00:38:25,730 --> 00:38:28,070
of rainfall, that sediment is
just going to flow into the

609
00:38:28,190 --> 00:38:28,340
river.

610
00:38:29,060 --> 00:38:31,160
Caitlin Kennedy: In other words,
the very thing mussels need to

611
00:38:31,250 --> 00:38:34,970
filter feed is killing them,
because there's just so much of

612
00:38:35,030 --> 00:38:38,750
it in rivers. Adults are
hardier, they can generally

613
00:38:38,870 --> 00:38:42,550
survive and expel a lot more
sediment, but the fragile young

614
00:38:42,670 --> 00:38:45,700
mussels, they're essentially
suffocated by over

615
00:38:45,790 --> 00:38:46,600
sedimentation.

616
00:38:47,240 --> 00:38:49,880
Mary Catherine Gallagher: We
have problems as well with river

617
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:54,110
bank management, so you know
these lovely, beautiful, like

618
00:38:54,110 --> 00:38:57,530
riparian zones that you get
along a natural river that

619
00:38:57,530 --> 00:39:00,500
hasn't been disturbed or
altered. We often lose them when

620
00:39:00,500 --> 00:39:04,880
we start to use land for other
things. You know, of course, as

621
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:07,880
a farmer who's trying to make
money off of your land, you want

622
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,495
to maximize the amount of area,
and so often these buffer zones,

623
00:39:11,495 --> 00:39:13,985
or riparian zones, can kind of
get smaller and smaller and

624
00:39:13,985 --> 00:39:17,435
smaller, or maybe sometimes not
exist anymore at all. And that's

625
00:39:17,435 --> 00:39:20,135
a problem, because obviously all
this lovely vegetation along the

626
00:39:20,135 --> 00:39:23,405
riverbank is like a natural
buffer, and so even if there was

627
00:39:23,405 --> 00:39:26,045
sediment running off the land,
it would get intercepted at that

628
00:39:26,045 --> 00:39:28,865
point, and not as much of it
would end up in the river.

629
00:39:28,865 --> 00:39:31,625
Caitlin Kennedy: Replanting
riverbanks with a buffer zone of

630
00:39:31,625 --> 00:39:35,690
plants is often the first line
of defense in river restoration,

631
00:39:35,690 --> 00:39:40,310
and it works really well. But it
will only ever be a band aid

632
00:39:40,310 --> 00:39:43,100
without less intensive
agriculture and forestry

633
00:39:43,100 --> 00:39:49,640
practices, ideally that are
timed to the rhythm of the rain.

634
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:53,600
If you're thinking this sounds
like a gloomy outlook or a

635
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:57,515
never-ending list of implausible
conservation demands, you're

636
00:39:57,515 --> 00:40:01,235
right. Things weren't great for
organisms that called the Irish

637
00:40:01,235 --> 00:40:04,925
rivers home. They're still not!
But for the Ballinderry pearl

638
00:40:04,925 --> 00:40:09,995
mussels, hope came from an
unexpected place — the aftermath

639
00:40:09,995 --> 00:40:12,365
of a war.

640
00:40:12,365 --> 00:40:16,085
Ireland might be known for its
rolling hills, welcoming pubs,

641
00:40:16,085 --> 00:40:20,060
and a certain joviality known as
the crack, but there's a darker

642
00:40:20,060 --> 00:40:23,870
side to Irish history. The
potato famine, of course, looms

643
00:40:23,870 --> 00:40:28,610
large, so too do The Troubles,
which sowed deep seeds of

644
00:40:28,610 --> 00:40:33,140
division that still exist today.
And if habitat restoration

645
00:40:33,140 --> 00:40:37,820
seemed unlikely in the '70s and
'80s, peace felt an even more

646
00:40:37,820 --> 00:40:41,630
distant prospect. I know I'm not
the first to point out that The

647
00:40:41,630 --> 00:40:45,215
Troubles is kind of a
diminishing term for what was in

648
00:40:45,215 --> 00:40:49,625
fact a civil war, replete with
checkpoints and bombs and

649
00:40:49,625 --> 00:40:53,705
paramilitaries. This bloody
conflict between Catholics and

650
00:40:53,705 --> 00:40:57,965
Protestants was fought not only
on religious grounds but also

651
00:40:57,965 --> 00:41:01,745
national identity. The
Unionists, who were largely

652
00:41:01,745 --> 00:41:05,630
Protestant, wanted to stay part
of the United Kingdom, whilst

653
00:41:05,630 --> 00:41:09,080
the Republicans, largely
Catholic, wanted the North to

654
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:13,580
rejoin the South as a fully
independent Ireland. The

655
00:41:13,580 --> 00:41:16,430
troubles have been simmering
ever since the Republic had

656
00:41:16,430 --> 00:41:22,490
gained independence in 1921 but
by the '80s and '90s things

657
00:41:22,490 --> 00:41:27,740
turned really ugly. Around 3500
people lost their lives in

658
00:41:27,740 --> 00:41:32,015
bombings, fires, attacks, and
reprisal killings, and even

659
00:41:32,015 --> 00:41:35,735
people like Frank, a hippie at
heart with no interest in

660
00:41:35,735 --> 00:41:39,515
stoking the fire, couldn't help
getting caught up in the heat.

661
00:41:39,515 --> 00:41:46,325
Frank Mitchell: In all my time,
I never really taken any one

662
00:41:46,325 --> 00:41:50,315
side of anything, because I'm
kind of neutral in all these

663
00:41:50,345 --> 00:41:51,155
things.

664
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:53,930
Caitlin Kennedy: But because the
textile industry was still so

665
00:41:53,930 --> 00:41:56,900
dominant at the time, it was
inevitable that this

666
00:41:56,900 --> 00:42:01,460
all-pervasive social conflict
bled onto the factory floor.

667
00:42:01,460 --> 00:42:04,010
Frank Mitchell: Tit for tat, so
when you're walking on the

668
00:42:04,010 --> 00:42:06,830
factory with three or four
hundred people, whenever

669
00:42:06,830 --> 00:42:12,440
something happened, you could
have felt the tension... because

670
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:17,045
as far as they were concerned, I
was surely involved, because I

671
00:42:17,045 --> 00:42:20,705
was other side of the house. You
didn't know when things gonna

672
00:42:20,705 --> 00:42:23,885
break out and get worse. The
younger generation don't know

673
00:42:23,885 --> 00:42:26,585
about these things, and they
don't want them to know about

674
00:42:26,585 --> 00:42:30,125
it.

675
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,820
Caitlin Kennedy: But in the
early '90s, amidst all this

676
00:42:32,820 --> 00:42:36,900
distrust and violence, an
unlikely alliance formed between

677
00:42:36,900 --> 00:42:40,740
Protestant and Catholic anglers.
Both were starting to get

678
00:42:40,740 --> 00:42:43,440
worried about the state of the
Ballinderry River,

679
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:46,140
Frank Mitchell: The Ballinderry
was one of the best fishing

680
00:42:46,170 --> 00:42:51,060
rivers in probably the whole of
Ireland. And then it started to

681
00:42:51,630 --> 00:42:55,365
decline, the number of fish
started to fall back.

682
00:42:55,365 --> 00:42:58,245
Caitlin Kennedy: When I first
came to Ballinderry, I had no

683
00:42:58,245 --> 00:43:01,965
idea that the freshwater pearl
mussel breeding program actually

684
00:43:01,965 --> 00:43:05,625
came into being because of The
Troubles. A community whose

685
00:43:05,625 --> 00:43:08,715
bonds had been pushed to
breaking point came together for

686
00:43:08,715 --> 00:43:10,395
the sake of the river.

687
00:43:10,395 --> 00:43:13,455
Frank Mitchell: It was very much
based on the two sides of

688
00:43:13,455 --> 00:43:17,685
community working together and
we are always open for anyone to

689
00:43:17,730 --> 00:43:21,360
come from our breeding center to
our river school, and it doesn't

690
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,350
matter where you're from, who
you are, what colour you are, or

691
00:43:25,380 --> 00:43:27,600
what races you are, anyone at
all.

692
00:43:31,050 --> 00:43:34,020
Caitlin Kennedy: Frank told me
those inspiring anglers worked

693
00:43:34,020 --> 00:43:37,380
together to access peace and
reconciliation funds from the

694
00:43:37,380 --> 00:43:41,265
EU, and they carved out a
long-term vision of connection

695
00:43:41,265 --> 00:43:45,525
to nature in a very building
where our story started — the

696
00:43:45,525 --> 00:43:49,695
mussel nursery. Initially
constructed as a fish hatchery,

697
00:43:49,695 --> 00:43:53,115
it was soon dedicated to
repopulating the river with

698
00:43:53,115 --> 00:43:57,915
mussels and studying their long
and convoluted lives. To hear

699
00:43:57,915 --> 00:44:01,815
Frank and his team advocating
for these beings is to hear the

700
00:44:01,815 --> 00:44:05,610
healing of old wounds between
Protestants and Catholics,

701
00:44:05,610 --> 00:44:07,980
humans and the land.

702
00:44:07,980 --> 00:44:10,620
Frank Mitchell: They're one of
them species that can't speak

703
00:44:10,620 --> 00:44:14,370
for themselves, so I feel that
working with them and have an

704
00:44:14,370 --> 00:44:20,250
opportunity to talk about them
and raise their profile in any

705
00:44:20,250 --> 00:44:24,360
way at all that will help them,
well then I'm privileged to be

706
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:24,660
doing it.

707
00:44:24,660 --> 00:44:27,405
Caitlin Kennedy: The Ballinderry
Rivers Trust continues to

708
00:44:27,405 --> 00:44:31,215
protect the river. They bring in
people of all ages to connect

709
00:44:31,215 --> 00:44:33,765
with these species, and they
stay true to their

710
00:44:33,765 --> 00:44:37,815
reconciliation roots. Before
Frank and I ventured out to see

711
00:44:37,815 --> 00:44:41,025
mussels in the wild, he had just
finished a school tour with

712
00:44:41,025 --> 00:44:44,385
students from a Catholic, a
Protestant, and an integrated

713
00:44:44,385 --> 00:44:48,645
school all at the same time.
It's how they always work.

714
00:44:48,735 --> 00:44:51,270
Frank Mitchell: That is
something I find... when they do

715
00:44:51,270 --> 00:44:55,110
that, it's things that will stay
in their mind, and they have

716
00:44:55,110 --> 00:44:59,250
that entrant there. When you see
the children going through the

717
00:44:59,250 --> 00:45:01,770
breeding center, and seeing
these things and shouting,

718
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,460
getting excited... it's
wonderful.

719
00:45:05,460 --> 00:45:08,340
Caitlin Kennedy: I'm left
wondering whether maybe, just

720
00:45:08,340 --> 00:45:12,645
maybe, freshwater pearl mussels
and the people who protect them

721
00:45:12,645 --> 00:45:16,305
can show us a more stable,
long-term vision of nature

722
00:45:16,305 --> 00:45:19,425
restoration — One where we get
better at putting aside

723
00:45:19,425 --> 00:45:24,195
differences in beliefs for the
sake of species on the brink. If

724
00:45:24,195 --> 00:45:27,465
Northern Irish Protestants and
Catholics can come together for

725
00:45:27,465 --> 00:45:30,645
the sake of the river's health
straight after the most

726
00:45:30,645 --> 00:45:34,980
turbulent and violent period in
their region's history, then

727
00:45:34,980 --> 00:45:37,500
there's a lot more hope out
there than the news would have

728
00:45:37,500 --> 00:45:41,580
us believe.

729
00:45:41,580 --> 00:45:44,610
Frank and the team at
Ballinderry, they're not engaged

730
00:45:44,610 --> 00:45:47,490
in attention-grabbing
conservation. Their goals can't

731
00:45:47,490 --> 00:45:51,180
be achieved within an election
cycle, because that's just never

732
00:45:51,180 --> 00:45:54,120
going to work for an ultra
long-lived species like the

733
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:58,875
mussels. What he showed me was a
truly long-term vision of

734
00:45:58,875 --> 00:46:04,215
regeneration based on dedication
and perseverance in a deeply

735
00:46:04,215 --> 00:46:09,705
challenging context, not waiting
for the winds to change first.

736
00:46:09,705 --> 00:46:13,815
Because when we spend time with
more-than-human beings or take

737
00:46:13,815 --> 00:46:19,065
shared responsibility for their
protection, it's pretty special.

738
00:46:19,065 --> 00:46:22,500
Frank has probably spent more
time than anyone with freshwater

739
00:46:22,500 --> 00:46:27,240
pearl muscles, and they've
changed him, changed how he sees

740
00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:31,770
his role in life. Even just
noticing aquatic species whilst

741
00:46:31,770 --> 00:46:35,550
I stand up to my knees in a
river is a mind-shifting

742
00:46:35,550 --> 00:46:38,130
experience.

743
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,370
Frank Mitchell: And then, if you
come here and look through the

744
00:46:40,370 --> 00:46:46,460
bathyscope, and I move things
gently across. And if you look

745
00:46:46,460 --> 00:46:54,980
in there, you'll see the mussels
underneath the wood.

746
00:46:55,010 --> 00:46:58,130
Caitlin Kennedy: Wow... there's
so many in there!

747
00:46:59,030 --> 00:47:03,695
Frank Mitchell: Yep, and
sometimes I'm marking where the

748
00:47:03,695 --> 00:47:06,905
old mussels are. Why are they
there in the first place?

749
00:47:06,905 --> 00:47:12,245
They're there because this is
where they wanted to be. Just

750
00:47:12,245 --> 00:47:17,795
because I'm working with them so
long, it's nice to see them, but

751
00:47:17,795 --> 00:47:20,705
if you can imagine you put
someone out here, you've

752
00:47:20,705 --> 00:47:24,980
actually reared that on the
gills of the fish in the

753
00:47:24,980 --> 00:47:28,250
hatchery, and you let them grow
on, and then next thing you go

754
00:47:28,250 --> 00:47:30,950
in and you start harvesting
them, and you bring them down

755
00:47:30,950 --> 00:47:35,780
through the hatchery to grow
them on, sort them out, and then

756
00:47:35,780 --> 00:47:40,220
you have to take them and put
them in here. Then you come back

757
00:47:40,220 --> 00:47:45,800
here in 7 or 8 years time, and
they're still here. That, to me,

758
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:47,030
is magic.

759
00:47:49,205 --> 00:47:52,655
Caitlin Kennedy: I've always
found wading in a river magical,

760
00:47:52,655 --> 00:47:57,485
but now I see every riverbed in
a whole new light. I see them as

761
00:47:57,485 --> 00:48:00,905
homes to a network of
interdependent, fascinating

762
00:48:00,905 --> 00:48:05,855
species that are absolutely
worth saving. Frank showed me

763
00:48:05,855 --> 00:48:10,055
how to glimpse into this realm,
and now I do it everywhere I go.

764
00:48:17,240 --> 00:48:25,430
And I found a mussel!! And it's
a, oh, a whole little collection

765
00:48:25,430 --> 00:48:30,650
of them, and they're really big.
These ones must be these ones

766
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:38,555
must be at least 50 years old.
They're nestled in amongst,

767
00:48:38,555 --> 00:48:42,965
amongst underneath a rock, so
they're really, really hidden. I

768
00:48:42,965 --> 00:48:46,715
could just tell it because
there's a split apart, and I can

769
00:48:46,715 --> 00:48:50,555
see their little fronds are out.
They're feeding, you can see the

770
00:48:50,555 --> 00:48:56,330
kind of frilliness. They look
very happy, and there they will

771
00:48:56,330 --> 00:49:02,180
stay for the next, you know,
another 50 years. Oh, this is so

772
00:49:02,180 --> 00:49:07,700
exciting. I'm thrilled to have
found some by myself. Oh, and

773
00:49:07,700 --> 00:49:14,690
another one. Oh, what a
fantastic end to the day. But I

774
00:49:14,690 --> 00:49:19,835
will put my hydrophone in and
see whether we hear any sounds.

775
00:49:36,670 --> 00:49:39,760
Mendel Skulski: This episode of
Future Ecologies was produced by

776
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:44,395
Caitlin Kennedy and me, Mendel
Skulski, with help from Fiona

777
00:49:44,395 --> 00:49:49,165
Glen. It featured the voices of
Frank Mitchell, Mary Catherine

778
00:49:49,165 --> 00:49:54,895
Gallagher, Stiofán Cullen, and
Sebastian Graham. Music by Olly

779
00:49:54,895 --> 00:50:00,565
Keen, Thumbug, Martin Austwick,
Sorcha Kennedy, and our theme by

780
00:50:00,565 --> 00:50:06,355
Sunfish Moon Light. Cover art by
the wonderful Alle Silva.

781
00:50:07,950 --> 00:50:11,880
Future Ecologies is an entirely
independent listener-supported

782
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:15,960
podcast, and it simply would not
exist without our incredible

783
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:19,710
patrons. If you'd like to become
one, and get early episode

784
00:50:19,710 --> 00:50:23,700
releases, exclusive bonus
content, free and discounted

785
00:50:23,700 --> 00:50:27,510
merch like stickers, patches,
and toques, plus access to our

786
00:50:27,510 --> 00:50:31,095
community Discord and book club.
You can sign up at

787
00:50:31,095 --> 00:50:34,755
futureecologies.net/join

788
00:50:36,195 --> 00:50:40,425
We'll be back before too long
with season seven and a few

789
00:50:40,425 --> 00:50:45,825
special treats in the meantime.
'Til then, thanks for listening.