Abbie Gascho Landis first fell for freshwater mussels while submerged in an
Alabama creek, her pregnant belly squeezed into a wetsuit. After an hour of
fruitless scanning, a mussel materialized from the rocks--a little
spectaclecase, herself pregnant, filtering the river water through a delicate
body while her gills bulged with offspring. In that moment of connection, Landis
became a mussel groupie, obsessed with learning more about the creatures' hidden
lives. She isn't the only fanatic; the shy mollusks, so vital to the health of
rivers around the world, have a way of inspiring unusual devotion. In Immersion: The Science and Mystery of Freshwater Mussels, Landis