THEY attracted Caesar to England and were worn in Sir Walter Raleigh’s ears. But England’s pearl mussels are now so endangered that government conservationists are planning a “dating agency” to encourage them to breed.

The freshwater pearl mussels, which can live for up to 100 years in rivers in the north and west of England, cannot find a mate near by.

Thousands live solitary lives in otherwise empty mussel beds, no young mussels are being produced and total numbers are falling sharply. Conservationists from the Environment Agency and English Nature will today discuss plans to bring mussels together.

“The mussels in England and Wales are becoming very spaced out. They don’t get about much and their sex life is not what it used to be. We are considering picking them up and putting them close together,” a spokesman for the agency said.

The mussel, Margaritifera margaritifera, lives in groups where the males release sperm into the water and the females catch it to fertilise themselves. They produce larvae that attach themselves to the gills of young salmon, until they are carried upstream and drop off.

They become sexually mature at about 12 years old, and grow up to 15 cm (6in) long. It is a criminal offence to disturb pearl mussels, but pearl fishing, the decline of salmon and water pollution are all thought to be responsible for their decline.

Anne Lewis, the agency’s mussel expert, said: “We can’t simply monitor these populations until they become extinct. We need to take active measures to prolong their existence. This is a rare species that is under threat around the world, not just here. To lose it would be a tragedy.”

The Roman historian Suetonius suggested that Julius Caesar’s love of pearls was one reason for his invasion of Britain. The pearls were also highly prized in Elizabethan times.

The youngest mussels in English rivers are now middle-aged. However, they breed successfully in Scotland and Ireland, where they are still found in dense beds.

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