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(Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 2019
As a scientist, Jackie Sones trains her focus on observable data — what can be documented, quantified and compared.
But it’s taken some effort recently to keep her emotions at bay as she worked among tens of thousands of empty, gaping mussel shells, appraising the scope of a rare mass die-off along the rocky shoreline of the North Coast.
In yet another sign of the toll exacted by rising temperatures on the ocean environment, a period of extreme heat last month appears to have killed off a large portion of the mussel bed in Bodega Bay.
“It was just really hard to be surrounded by all these dead animals,” Sones, research coordinator for the UC Davis Bodega Marine Reserve, said after a weekend survey of the mussels. “You’re doing this as a scientist, to document the situation. But as a person, that was a challenging thing to be doing.”
Up to 70% of the specimens died in the hardest hit, most exposed areas of the mussel bed along the mile or so that Sones has been able to survey so far.
Sones has heard from researchers and citizen scientists about similar episodes ranging from Dillon Beach in Marin County to an area of the Mendocino Coast near Westport, suggesting a widespread problem.
The alarm is not just over the enormous number of mussels that basically cooked in the sun. In addition, mussels are a foundation species that provides habitat for other organisms, creating the structure in which they live.
The bivalves attach themselves to the rocks in tightly packed colonies in both the intertidal zone, which lies above water at low tide, and the subtidal zone, which sits below the low-tide mark. They help to ameliorate the energy of the surf and shade out the sun so smaller creatures can find refuge.
Snails, worms, barnacles and anemones are among dozens of species found where California mussels live. So the mortality event may extend to other species, Sones suggested.
Courtesy of pressdemocrat.com
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