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While these mussels are not harvested for human consumption, larger species, like waterbirds, raccoons, muskrats and otters, regularly eat freshwater mussels, meaning the contamination could pass up the food chain, Pankratz said.

Aquatic species such as muskrat and beaver, which can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes, will take that long to drown in underwater sets.

Mussels help the ecosystem in other ways, too: Their beds make a good habitat for insects, and the mussels are a food source for muskrats and otters.

Likewise, muskrats, which have a lot of fur on their ears, are often misidentified as beavers, which don’t.

In February 1957, a young man hunting muskrats in a park north of Philadelphia chanced upon the badly beaten corpse of a young boy discarded in a cardboard box near the side of the road.