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April 11, 2006

Brown study details die-off of Bay mussels in 2001

Summer after summer, algae blooms and fish kills in Narragansett Bay have lined beaches with dead marine life and tainted the coast with foul odors. Now, a Brown University study has detailed more damage -- the loss of billions of mussels that died largely out of sight on the Bay's bottom.

Researchers estimate 4.5 billion mussels were killed in nine reefs largely around Prudence Island. The mussels had been so prevalent they could filter the waters of the Bay in 20 days, but after the die-off, the filtering capacity dropped by 75 percent.

The mussel deaths occurred in the summer of 2001, when heavy rains and hot weather caused algae blooms more prolific than some observers had seen in years. Oxygen is drawn from the water when algae dies off, creating low oxygen or hypoxic conditions that kill additional marine life.

-- Journal environment writer Peter B. Lord

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 6:03 PM | Permalink

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