firstly the mussels found in this thread are ''Swan Mussels'', they live in lakes and ponds and canals, they are fairly common I have found plenty throughout the uk and have even found them in lakes and canals and park pools right in the city centre of Birmingham and the West Midlands. The rare mussel is the ''Freshwater Pearl Mussel'' which is a completely different type to the swan mussel, the freshwater pearl mussel only lives in fast flowing very clean rivers which have particular qualities, they do not live in lakes pools or canals.
Scotland has a history of pearl fishing up until 1998 when it was made illegal, and Perth was the trading centre. There was a tradition amongst certain travelling families of pearl fishing. Pearl fishing is illegal now in the uk as the freshwater pearl mussel is a critically endangered species. Back in 1967 there was a guy who found a pearl of exceptional quality and sold it for a large amount of money (said to be many thousands of pounds but the sum was undisclosed) his name was Bill Abernethy a professional pearl fisherman and the pearl became known as ''Little Willie'' or the ''Abernethy Pearl'', said to be the most perfect pearl ever found and perhaps the most famous, it was on show at Cairncross jewellers shop in Perth where pearls used to be sold. Not all freshwater pearl mussels actually contain a pearl and the quality of those that do varies enormously, the Abernethy pearl was exceptional. There used to be an old law (now made illegal) which allowed anyone to fish for pearl mussels in any river in Scotland, that combined with the value of pearls inevitably led to overfishing and exploitation, all pearl mussels found were opened to see if they contained a pearl even though not all actually do, and once forcefully opened the mussel would die and be discarded. Sadly now the freshwater pearl mussel is extremely rare.
For anyone interested in Scotland's pearl fishing history there is a book called ''The River and the Road'' by Peter Goodwin who was one of the last legal pearl fishers, I have it on my bookshelf along with another book called ''The Summer Walkers'' about the travelling families of pearl fishers in Scotland.
The vid added below shows Bill Abernethy pearl fishing, while the setting and background music is romantic Abernethy is the guy who found the very rare Little Willie pearl, the publicity of which probably speeded up the decline of the freshwater pearl mussel by encouraging folks who put financial reward above anything else, it's sadly the same thing that happens to many rare things, however those who buy the pearls and those who like to display their wealth by decorating themseleves with pearls are equally responsible for the decline of the freshwater pearl mussel as the guy who fishes for them.
[video=youtube;cBr4XR6uoPY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBr4XR6uoPY[/video]
