Mary Seddon is currently the Chair of the SSC’s Mollusc Specialist Group. This group of invertebrates is the largest, most diverse group of animals within SSC’s current group structure, as it covers 85,000 species, as well as perhaps another 30% remaining to be described. This represents a great challenge in terms of delivering a programme of activity with the world’s malacologists (the name given to those who study snails, slugs, clams, mussels and the other smaller groups that make up the Phylum Mollusca). Fortunately there are about 400 people worldwide who are currently working mainly on Mollusca, with about 100 actively working on conservation issues. These people provide the vital input to questions posed by members of IUCN.

Mary is currently Head of Mollusca at Amgueddffa Cymru – National Museum Wales, based in Cardiff, UK. She’s been working there on the taxonomy, biogeography and systematics of European and African landsnails since 1990. The collections at Cardiff have international perspective, holding types and reference collections for about 40% of the world’s molluscan fauna, with particular concentrations from the former British Colonies. She became interested in conservation issues when working on the landsnail fauna of the Madeiran Islands, a unique archipelago in the North Atlantic, which has a very high number of endemic range restricted species. This fauna has protected species that are listed on the appendices of the European Habitats and Species Directive and this lead to involvement with the Threatened Species Assessment programmes of IUCN. Since 1994 Mary has served as a member of the Mollusc Specialist Group and since 1995 has directed volunteer activity on Red Lists.

At the Museum Mary has been actively working on Capacity Building projects in Africa, mainly funded by the UK’s Darwin Initiative. This has established molluscan specialists at National Museums of Kenya and National Museums of Tanzania and these scientists have also become actively involved in research programmes looking at the impact of forest programmes on molluscan biodiversity in the region.

Mary’s interests also extend to developing educational interactive programmes on Molluscs in the Museum. Five years ago a programme started tracking the Alien Girdle Snail in the UK; this introduces children to simple keys identifying snails in their gardens, the online mapping tool allows them to send their records of this species which is expanding its range in the UK, possibly as the result of climate change. Her interest in climate change stems from her PhD which used fossil snails to reconstruct Pleistocene Environments during the last glacial period in the UK.

In addition to threatened species assessments, the range of conservation activity on Molluscs worldwide can be seen though the newsletter, Tentacle. This is produced on an annual basis and is available electronically from Rob Cowie’s website in Hawaii. With her colleagues, Mary provides advice on Invasive Species, Ex-situ Breeding of Freshwater Mussels and Landsnails, status for species proposed for CITES and trade in Mollusc species.