Indiana Dunes puts 1,600 lab-raised fatmucket mussels in the Little Calumet

A decade of mussel work at Indiana Dunes reached a first release. The National Park Service said Oct. 1, 2026, that Indiana Dunes National Park put more than 1,600 native fatmucket mussels into the East Branch of the Little Calumet River in Porter County. The mussels are individually tagged. They are the first group the park has raised from larvae to subadult size at its Dunes Mussel Propagation Laboratory.

The animals started as larvae in the lab, grew as juveniles under controlled conditions, then grew in the river until they reached 20 to 30 millimeters, the size the park treats as ready to go back. The work is funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Acting superintendent Leo Lestino called native mussels critical to river health and tied the release to recovery in the Little Calumet.

The park describes the fatmuckets as filter feeders that can cut pathogen levels, stabilize sediment, and cycle nutrients. The aim is a self-sustaining population of a species that used to live in the watershed, not a sport stocking. The park covers more than 15,000 acres along Lake Michigan’s southern shore. Questions go to Indiana Dunes National Park or NPS Midwest Region Communications.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: National Park Service release, as published by WKVI — Indiana Dunes National Park releases 1,600 lab-grown native mussels (park release dated Oct. 1, 2026; WKVI, Oct. 2, 2026).