Rare freshwater pearl mussels to be released at secret Welsh site

Project aims to help save molluscs after fall in numbers caused by habitat loss, pollution, the climate crisis and human exploitation

Hundreds of young freshwater pearl mussels – one of the UK’s rarest aquatic creatures – are to be released into a river at a secret spot in north Wales this summer as part of a project to save the molluscs from extinction.

The juvenile mussels have been bred at a hatchery in the Brecon Beacons, in the south of the country, and will be carefully moved to the river in Gwynedd after it was restored to create the sort of conditions they are able to thrive in.