OUR PROJECTS
Show Us your Mussels Project
By ELGOL Fund for Nature
We at Edinburgh Shoreline have really appreciated your help with this project.
Blue mussels are beautiful blue – black bivalves with a pearly interior which settle as tiny spat after 3 or 4 weeks in the water, grow a beard and grow on rocks or in extensive mussel beds on beaches or other artificial surfaces.
They are economically and environmentally important filter feeders used for food around the world.
In the Forth they were used for bait for line fishing and many scalps (mussel beds) were worked out, for example at Tyninghame and Bo’ness where in 1803 ‘a large fleet of Newhaven fishermen arrived and almost wholly removed an extensive scalp’.
The loss of the mussel beds would have profound effects on the marine environment with the loss of that filtering capacity and of the food source at every life stage.
As a result of historic and current pressures we know that blue mussels are in decline around the Scottish coast.
The graph shows increases and decreases in abundance of rocky shore species around Scotland between surveys in the 2000s and visits to the same locations in 2014/15. Blue Mussels showed the most significant decline, and this has continued since then.
This information was extracted from a Marine Scotland case study https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/case-study-intertidal-rock
How have you helped?
The initial phase of the project, during which you shared your findings, provided valuable data that has started to shape our knowledge of the current state of blue mussels in the Firth of Forth.
Together we then monitored selected blue mussel patches monthly to look for changes in existence, size, sediment, predation etc to help better understand the dynamics what are affecting them.
So what is next?
We have now moved to the survival phase of the project. This will involve a citizen science and research trial led by Heriot-Watt University and Edinburgh Shoreline to investigate why blue mussel populations in the Firth of Forth have declined, using environmental monitoring at multiple historic and existing mussel sites. It will examine factors such as salinity, predation, sediment movement and water quality while following strict biosecurity and environmental safeguards. Findings are intended to support future long-term restoration and PhD research.
To find out more contact: mailto:charlotte@edinburghshoreline.org.uk
Keep track of everything you’ve discovered by clicking the links below.
Volunteer Guide
If you are keen to volunteer, you can download this leaflet for more details of how to get started.