This summer, the first 1000 juvenile freshwater pearl mussels will be released into the River Kent as part of the LIFE R4ever Kent project. In preparation for this, all mussels must be tagged and placed into a flume system to prepare them for conditions they will experience in the River Kent.

We are delighted to announce that the Lake District Arctic Charr Recovery and Management project has been awarded Natural England Species Recovery Programme funding to support vital research to help save Arctic charr populations in England from extinction.

Today, we are delighted to share in full the State of Windermere in 2024 report and the Windermere Integrated Science Plan (WISP), authored by Dr. Lynsey R. Harper, funded by the Environment Agency and produced by the Freshwater Biological Association.

At the Species Recovery Centre, the FBA has finished its annual "Exhaustive Surveys", a census which involves counting all mussels in the facility that are more than 5mm in length. Counts take place on every mussel rearing system and from this a representative sample will be taken to determine average lengths of the freshwater pearl mussel population at the FBA Ark.

We are delighted to announce that our first official in-person ECMN event will be on 26 June at Nottingham Trent University. Taking place the day after our Annual Scientific Meeting, this is an opportunity for early career researchers and practitioners to attend both gatherings, to enable networking and establish mentoring partnerships that offer members of the ECMN career support.

Here we catch up with FBA’s Pearl Mussel Assistant, Jodie Warren, to hear about the daily activities at the FBA Ark species recovery sanctuary and the freshwater science making a vital contribution towards protecting vulnerable freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera).

We are delighted to share the agenda for the FBA Annual Scientific Meeting at Nottingham Trent University on Wednesday 25 June 2025. This conference-style event will be a showcase for an array of speakers from a diversity of backgrounds in freshwater science including early career researchers and senior academics.