Show Us Your Mussels – View Initial Findings

No evidence of mussels

No dead shells or shell fragments, no live mussels. difficult access, very rocky.

Huge numbers of dead mussel shells - all unhinged.

Lots of old dead shells around here

This was only mussel shell we found nearer top of shoreline

I walked the whole of square 47 and the part of 48 that has coastline, and even though the surfaces looked perfect for mussels - lots of crevices between rocks, and cracks in the seawalls, all of which would be covered at high tide - found not a single live mussel. There were a lot of limpets and barnacles, and quite a lot of beadlet anenomes, and plenty of seaweeds, so not a desert!

Very few mussel shells in strandline. Although very small numbers of single shells overall most were towards West end of the square.

Very small numbers of broken mussel shells in this square founds on beach or strandline. Rocks covered in abundant barnacles with limpets and frequent beadlet anemones

Very few shells in strandline. Although very small numbers overall slightly more towards west end of this square.

Intertidal rocks dominated by barnacles with frequent limpet and beadlet anemone.

There were a few single unhinged shells on this small beach. Each location only had 1-2 shells so I have grouped them into this one entry.
nutrients.vented.badminton
bloomers.acrobatic.glorified
revise.outbid.beaten
copper.both.grad
cartoons.crimson.should
extreme.worthy.brisk

There were two areas close to each other which had a number of single unhinged shells.
ending.nicer.quits
sulk.unicorns.arriving

Not much in this small harbour area at low tide.

Also rocky shore including boulders and bedrock. A single blue mussel shell noted on the strandline

Tyninghame beach which would be square 91 if assigned! Sandy beach and rocky shore comprising bedrock and boulders. Very few single mussel shells on the upper shore

No obvious locations for mussel beds. Nothing found on sea wall (the sea is very far away at this point). Some clusters of small rocks which were checked.

Live mussels absent. Rocky substrate with many gullies, crevices etc looked like ideal mussel territory.
'Normal' sort of density of limpets and barnacles, some periwinkles.
Luxuriant growth of Acsophyllum seaweed, some mixed fucoids, mainly serratus on lower shore.

Seabed changed from Western section of Square 13 from sandy/silt to sand at Eastern End of the square lots of shells, Razors, Periwinkles, Cockles and Queen Scallops and old Oyster Shells. Certainly more dead mussel shells as you go further East but still very sparse. Rocky Outcrops covered in Bladder Wrack and kelp but no mussels to be found underneath, lots of old Barnacles and lots of Cockles, more the further East you go.

Happy to check this Square when winter storms have moved kelp and wrack but disappointing to not find one!

Most of the shore in square 24 was inaccessible. The accessible area were at the eastern and western edges of the square. No live mussels or hinged shells were found, but there were thousands of single dead mussel shells. Hard surfaces in the square were well covered by green and brown seaweeds, limpets, periwinkles and barnacles.

We found 215 unhinged shells.

Only two living mussels found. Many empty single shells.

Large area (30m x 30m) on sand carpeted with unhinged, generally large, shells

I initially went down to check out the site on July 13th, before receiving this email. I wasn't sure if empty shell numbers were wanted so I didn't count them, there were many. I counted only 8 living mussels at low tide, individuals scattered along the stretch.

The only individual live mussels I found today were attached to rocks close to the sea wall, there were hundreds of unhinged dead blue mussel shells.

There were old half shells at two other locations on the upper shore at:
///matter.nags.knees
///joggers.backs.shadowing

2 adult individuals located in separate cracks and crevices on a large boulder on East Beach rocky shore (just below Seabird Centre)

~10 individual adults (though possibly more - I ran out of time) spread across multiple boulders.

These were all about 2cm long, apart from one which was about 2.5cm

Only found a few single live mussels - these and a few others - will upload three words. Lots of unhinged single side everywhere along the Longniddry bents coastline.
Took lots of photos but couldn't seem to upload them - buffered.

2 small live mussels found in square, 20cm apart. One was 1.5cm long, the other approximately 3cm (inaccessible for direct measurement). Very few empty shells, and some shell fragments. Area of suitable substrata for mussels (horizontal, vertical and fissured bedrock, boulders, cobbles, many large and small rockpools, clean sand, abundant fucoid seaweeds) in this square is very large - 100s of square metres. Dominant animal cover was barnacles with some limpets.

6 live individuals on concrete pillars of Cramond Island causeway. Plus a number of dead, unhinged mussels.

5 live attached individuals on concrete pillar

6 live attached individuals

7 live attached individuals on concrete pillar

Scattered large live attached individuals on horizontal concrete surface between pillars. Areas between pillars in this area all have similar collections of individuals.

2 live attached individuals

2 individual live mussels

1 live individual

1 live individual

2 live individuals

About 10 individuals scattered on plinth between pillars

cluster of 9 big and some small mussels. Plus several individuals

About 20 individuals on plinth between pillars

7 individuals

Very few hinged shells apart from this small spot. Lots of individual unhinged shells on the beach itself though.

most were individuals or a few, quite deep in rock clefts and all very covered in barnacles. only one patch/cluster, but they were across the whole of my square. Difficult to get into the middle of the huge rocks but seemed to be more in there too.

3 mussels (small) about 3cm in length attached to harbour wall covered in seaweed

You will note from the date this is a retrospective photo from 2023.
I had noticed we had old mussels and babies but nothing in between. I took photos here in the latter part of 2023 until they disappeared in October.
My plan is to monitor this area again as there are new mussels on the rocks again- see further reports.

Single rock on a bed of sand

Massive bed of babies of different ages nothing big enough to measure. Bed is on a single rock

Juvenile colony on a single rock. Within a 500m wide spread of juvenile mussels

Additional WhatThreeWords for location: scope.twinkling.tailed
Approximately 50+ adults on rocky outcrop. Greater than 2m expanse of colony.

Mixed colony of adult and baby mussels on a single rock

Abundance of baby mussels on large boulder just below Crusoe Hotel. 2m by 1m area

There were clusters growing in the end of a metal pipe and all along it inland up to 56.20947N 2.95300W. These were the only large mussels we found at a very low tide. It is unlikely we will be able to monitor these

Cluster of adults with babies

Approximately 26 adults and millions of babies. Rocky outcrop less than 1 m in length. The adults range in size from 9cm largest to 5cm smallest

Only visible at very low tide, and a slippery surface to negotiate. Not ideal for monitoring, but possible with care. Hard to measure shells though, as well embedded between stones.

Multiple smaller clusters and small individuals spread over an area

There was a second group of clusters for about 20 m from rang, ropes, grant to bravo, fire, foam

A number of patches with small numbers of individuals on rocks tucked away in crevices. Single intact, mixed size mussel shells found occasionally on the beach. Monitoring those mussels in photo with white cockle shell for scale.

Single rock, covered with clusters of mature(6cm) and juvenile mussels(5mm).

Clusters of mussels on an artificial surface (concrete covering of sewage pipe).Over a linear stretch of 3.36m, 63 mature mussels were counted measuring up to 7cm. Small juveniles across the area (1mm).

There were others close to the main cluster. They all seemed alive and healthy and around 5cm long.

Scattered individuals and clusters of blue mussels on East side of rocky outcrop North of Green Craig.

Clusters and single mussels well tucked in to rocky outcrops at Aberlady Point

Lot of sand ‘dumped’ in this area during winter storms.
Ps. Apologies for late submission of this - temporarily indisposed, OK now.

3 clusters on concrete pillars on Cramond Is causeway. Approx 20-30cm long linear clusters

5 live attached individuals plus 10cm long cluster on concrete pillar of Cramond Is causeway

single live attached individual on concrete pillar

small cluster in crack in concrete pillar on Cramond Is causeway

cluster in crack in concrete on pillar on Cramond Is causeway

20cm long cluster in crack in concrete

small cluster plus 5 live individuals on concrete pillar

80 cm long cluster in crack in concrete

2 clusters on concrete pillar

12cm long cluster in crack in concrete pillar

cluster in crack in concrete

linear cluster in crack in concrete pillar

20cm long cluster in crack in concrete pillar

About 40 individuals on plinth between pillars. Some mini clusters

Many individuals and some mini clusters on plinth between pillars

5 clusters up to 20cm long on plinth between pillars

About 50 individuals most in clusters, some coalescing into ribbons

7 scattered small clusters and some individuals

scattered small clusters of 3 to 5 individuals

clusters up to 20cm

5 small clusters

small clusters

almost a bed of mussels - on plinth between pillars. 1m x 1m About 7 individuals

50 individuals in small/medium clusters

6 small clusters

1 small cluster plus 5 individuals