Freshwater mussels are among the most imperiled animals on Earth, with North American species facing extinction rates that dwarf those of more charismatic wildlife groups.
Freshwater mussel conservation welfare involves both the mussels themselves and the broader ecosystem services they provide. While mussel sentience is uncertain, their ecological role in filtering water and providing habitat makes their decline catastrophic for the welfare of countless other species. Rivers that lose their mussel communities become degraded in ways that affect fish, wildlife, and human communities that depend on clean water. Conservation interventions including captive breeding programs for the most imperiled species, habitat restoration through dam removal, and water quality improvement in agricultural watersheds all simultaneously protect mussel populations and the ecosystem welfare they underpin. The neglect of freshwater mussels in conservation prioritization has allowed an extinction crisis to develop largely unnoticed.