Tuesday 21 March 2017

Clever Mussels! Room 20 is learning about how our actions affect our local sea environment.

Mussels in the sea water collected from the Tamaki Estuary. Can you spot the difference between the clarity of the water in the top and bottom picture?





This is the water as soon as the mussels were put in. Can you see how cloudy the water is with all the sediment and silt floating around? 


After half an hour we started to see the water become clearer where the mussels began to filter it through their shells. 

Did you know a mussel can filter 350 litres of sea water a day!
Unfortunately there are nowhere near enough mussels to do the filtering of the Hauraki Gulf like many years ago as there are very little reefs for the mussels to grow on.

The is a lot of pollution from Auckland storm water drains into the sea, like in the Tamaki Estuary. But if we can support the regrowth of mussels on the seabed the water can be cleaned up and sea life will come back to the Gulf.

Find more information at:

http://reviveourgulf.org.nz/


We have been thinking of ways in which we can stop pollution going down the drain. 
Can you help too?



1 comment:

  1. We have talked so much about these mussels at home. Very fascinating :)

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