During September and October of 2002, we collected and moved more than
2,000 endangered fat pocketbook pearly mussels, Potamilus capax,
from a 5.7-km reach of a drainage ditch in eastern Arkansas. The
translocation was to protect mussels from planned maintenance dredging and
was required by the Biological Opinion prepared by the US Fish
and Wildlife Service. The project did not proceed as planned, and we
removed only about 80% of the P. capax. In this article we
examine mistakes made, lessons learned, and discuss procedures that might
have led to a more favorable outcome. We identified three key decisions
that should have been thoroughly discussed prior to initiating the work:
percentage of mussels to be removed, choice of recipient sites, and number
of mussels to be marked and measured. Two other issues were important: the
status of P. capax in Arkansas and the likelihood of future
dredging needs at recipient sites. Initially, we felt that
decision-analysis tools, used during planning, would have facilitated a
better understanding of complex issues. Although such tools would have
encouraged better discussion, it is now apparent that communication was
hampered largely by the different perspectives of participants.