Crossposted from Headwaters

It’s cold and dark when we head to the beach. The mussels in the trunk have been on the road and on ice all day. This morning, ecotoxicologist and shellfish chauffeur Jennifer Lanksbury picked them up from a partner in Penn Cove and now we’re squeezed between two deadlines: these native bay mussels (Mytilus trossulus) can only be out of the water for 12 hours, and they must go back in at exactly the right moment.

The mollusks are key players in the Mussel Watch program, a regional effort led by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. The program combines the powers of people and mussels to track toxic contaminants in Puget Sound, and our group is just one of many working in sync to deploy mussels at more than 80 sites. We’re all racing the rain, the clock, and the tide. Read more.