Scientists conducted the largest expedition to study the rivers of the Onega Pomerania

The joint expedition of the Kenozersky National Park and the Federal Arctic Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the study of the rivers of the Onega Pomorye National Park, has ended. It took place from 20 to 29 June.

“The purpose of the expedition was to inventory the ichthyofauna of local watercourses, assess the state of the populations of salmon fish species living there, search among them for carriers of glochidia - larvae of the river pearl mussel, as well as search and study the mollusks themselves,” Kenozero National Park said on its website.

This expedition has become by far the largest scientific event to study the rivers of the Summer and Onega coasts of the White Sea.

Scientists have studied four populations of river pearl mussel (this is a bivalve mollusk) out of five found in the park - they determined the boundaries of their habitat, population density, population and age structure. In one of the streams, the most numerous population of pearl mussel was found - 285 mollusks were located on only one square meter of the bottom.

“Studying and monitoring the state of the populations of these unique animals will always be a priority for the park - pearl mussels are the only representatives of the park's fauna listed in the International Red Book. The very presence of these mollusks indicates the ecological well-being of water bodies, and in such favorable conditions, individual pearl mussels can live for more than 200 years, that is, the oldest living mollusks are contemporaries of A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov," the Kenozero National Park noted.

They reported that the result of the expedition is also to obtain information about the fish population of the ten main rivers and streams of this part of the Onega Pomerania. All these reservoirs can now be reliably called salmon - a habitat for trout, as well as a spawning site for anadromous trout and salmon.