Immersion: The Science and Mystery of Freshwater Mussels

by Abbie Gascho Landis

"This is nature writing at its best." —E.O. Wilson

"Eloquent treatise...Landis's book is as much call to action as paean to mesmerizing molluscs." — Nature

"Rich, accurate, and moving." — New Scientist

"A lyrical love letter to the imperiled freshwater mussel." — Science

Abbie Gascho Landis first fell for freshwater mussels while submerged in an Alabama creek, her pregnant belly squeezed into a wetsuit. After an hour of fruitless scanning, a mussel materialized from the rocks—a little spectaclecase, herself pregnant, filtering the river water through a delicate body while her gills bulged with offspring. In that moment of connection, Landis became a mussel groupie, obsessed with learning more about the creatures’ hidden lives. She isn’t the only fanatic; the shy mollusks, so vital to the health of rivers around the world, have a way of inspiring unusual devotion.

In Immersion , Landis brings readers to a hotbed of mussel diversity, the American Southeast, to seek mussels where they eat, procreate, and, too often, perish. Accompanied often by her husband, a mussel scientist, and her young children, she learned to see mussels on the creekbed, to tell a spectaclecase from a pigtoe, and to worry what vanishing mussels—70 percent of North American species are imperiled—will mean for humans and wildlife alike. In Immersion , Landis shares this journey, traveling from perilous river surveys to dry streambeds and into laboratories where endangered mussels are raised one precious life at a time.

Mussels have much to teach us about the health of our watersheds if we step into the creek and take a closer look at their lives. In the tradition of writers like Terry Tempest Williams and Sy Montgomery, Landis gracefully chronicles these untold stories with a veterinarian’s careful eye and the curiosity of a naturalist. In turns joyful and sobering, Immersion is an invitation to see rivers from a mussel’s perspective, a celebration of the wild lives visible to those who learn to search.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Environment, Natural History

256 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2017

Reviews

[Ani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful introduction to the world of freshwater mussels! Abbie gives these 'rocks with guts' the recognition they deserve. She expertly highlights the importance of these animals in our freshwater systems while tackling issues like water quality and scarcity. While scientifically based, this book isn't overly technical and is a smooth read! Abbie combines her personal experiences with the stories of mussel biologists into an entertaining and educational piece of nature nonfiction.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best thing about reading this sort of book, one focusing on a single type of animal, is the passion and love for that animal that comes across from the author. Abbie starts off the book with her first hunt for the "where's wally" of the animal world, the mussel. Sat at the bottom of a river bed half buried and only a couple of apertures on show, you can't blame her for her frustration at not being able to see something, even when somebody is pointing straight at it! But each time she finds a mussel and picks it up her words show how emotional she gets, especially when one starts to crawl across her hand.

My knowledge of mussels is that you can eat them...and they have a shell. Turns out this book is about the non-eating variety, fresh water mussels. There are many varieties often only to be found in certain rivers. Evolution is bonkers at times, how a mussel that has no eyes could create a lure that looks like a minnow is beyond my brain power. A huge amount of this book is dedicated to warning us to look after our rivers, mussels and rivers are dying and we are killing them off in a variety if different ways. Luckily for us there are people fighting to save them, hopefully this book will inspire a few more to join the cause.

I've enjoyed reading this and learning loads at the same time. I do have a few issues with the book, the flow can be disrupted now and then by another question being asked before the last question had been done with, there seem to be lots of tangents and a couple of the chapters abruptly end. It is still worth reading though. I'm now off to see if we get fresh water mussels in the UK.

[R.Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who could have thought that a book about freshwater mussels could be so fascinating, but it is. Landis has done it! Did you know that mussels have no heads and therefore no brains, but they are acutely aware of their environment and react to shadows and other threats by closing their hinged shell? Mussels move from place to place by propelling themselves forward with their one leg which they reach outside the slightly open shell to move themselves. They actively seek what they need to survive. Male mussels toss their sperm into the water where female mussels filter it in along with bits of algae and other suspended particles. When the fertilized eggs mature into larval mussels, they are released into the river by the millions where the the lucky ones attach themselves to passing fish and continue maturing until they drop off to begin their adult lives ingesting and filtering water that helps to clean the rivers and streams.
Mussels can get infections; they can get cancer. A big threat to their existence is temperature change of the water and pollution of streams. Author Abbie Gascho Landis writes about the many scientists that study freshwater mussels and how they work to prevent further extinction of the different mussel species that often live side by side in the same stream. This is truly a well-written, account of a little creature that most of us don't think much about. After reading this book, I have a huge appreciation for the role that mussels play in our environment.

[Nancy Grudens Schuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

The nonfiction book “Immersion” blends science communication and memoir, by a Landis, a female nature writer and veterinarian, who walks us through her own learning and emerging fascination with freshwater mussels. She begins and ends with intensely personal stories, but many of them are light hearted and provide an alternative from the sometimes searing nature of the environmental memoir, while remaining meaningful and interesting. It was easy to stay with this book from beginning to end. She begins with the analogy (and reality) of her pregnancy as she learns about mussels as part of a science study in Alabama. The remarkable scientists and natural wonders of Alabama are woven throughout the text. I loved learning about Alabama. The tone of the science communication was patient and humorous. She told stories about mussel fish tanks in her home, “spermcasting” (get the camera); dangers (sinkholes and snakes); car vandalizing; handcuffs because her husband did not know he was on private property; and tense meetings with corporate lawyers. Toward the middle, she provided top notch biology chapters. I was entranced by sections on male/female mussel behaviors (I had no idea) and mechanisms fish used to host the interim stage of mussels (you should read the book). The historical chapters provided summaries of the pearl and button industries that occured in my stretch of country (Iowa, and the Midwest) and their effects on the population crash. Landis switches locations from Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina as she functions as a woman in science. The male scientists are portrayed positively but we cannot help but notice that she is nearly always the only woman in the setting on boats, in rivers, and in laboratories. Again and again. The books takes a somber turn at the 70% completion level (Kindle) with discussion of dams and their devastation of populations of mussels, and the harm caused by agricultural and industrial pollution. She provides the reader with the best plain science description of the effects of dams on mussels that I know. What a great contribution.

[Patricia Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reverence for freshwater mussels, many endangered, unique creatures that signal destruction and devastation of our waterways by their living and dying. Almost an ode to these creatures, Landis, a veterinarian, whose husband is an aquatic ecologist, explores the rivers of Alabama and Georgia, once home to large diverse species of freshwater mussels, to learn their habitat, their life cycle, their reproduction, their life stories. Ultimately, “[T]he continued existence or disappearance of mussels will be evidence of how we shape our relationship with the water that supports life.” These tiny animals have much to teach us even as we continue to learn about them.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book and intro to freshwater mussels, but not quite as much information as I would have hoped given the length of the book. At times it felt like the memoir element was just filling space. Still, interesting overall.

[Jasper Burns · Rating 2 out of 5]

View my best reviews and a collection of mental models at jasperburns.blog.