The Irish Pearl Mussel Project is looks agricultural impact and looks at 80% of the population.
To consider other (non-agricultural) threats, and 20% of Pearl Mussel populations outside the 8 Project catchments needs more consideration.
Summary on conservation status of Pearl Mussel species (Page 51):
Reports on the conservation status of habitats/species protected under the Habitats Directive, are made to the EU every six years, and all three summary and detailed background reports are available at:
https://www.npws.ie/publications/article-17-reports
These include some information on pressures and conservation measures.
A map identifying the water catchments within which populations of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel occur can be found on the following web page as both a GIS shapefile and as a pdf (entitled ‘Margaritifera Sensitive Areas map’)
https://www.npws.ie/maps-and-data/habitat-and-species-data
List of all Pearl Mussel Sensitive Areas
Map of all Pearl Mussel Sensitive Areas
General Information on NPWS
There is also information on the species on npws.ie, (may need to be updated)
See
https://www.npws.ie/research-projects/animal-species/invertebrates/freshwater-pearl-mussel
Which has links to a series of pages, including this page
That lists the 19 SACs designated for the protection of the species, and :
That gives some information on conservation measures, including Regulations made in 2009 to protect 27 mussel populations in those 19 SACs
Interested in local knowledge on Pearl Mussel population, non-agricultural threats and any local citizen science / research on populations within or outside the Pearl Mussel Project.
Please get in contact via website to post any relevant information
Freshwater Pearl Mussel Regulations:
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/si/296/made/en/print and http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2018/si/355/made/en/print
A PROTOCOL FOR THE TRANSLOCATION OF THE FRESHWATER PEARL MUSSEL MARGARITIFERA MARGARITIFERA IN THE RIVER SLANEY AT ENNISCORTHY, COUNTY WEXFORD