Can mussels monitor pollution

Summary

Wild blue mussels have long been renowned among the scientific community for their ability to successfully and efficiently filter pollutants from the water and store them in their tissues. In fact, the mussels are so adept at this process that researchers are able to monitor levels of metallic and organic pollution in the surrounding seawater with relative accuracy, just by analysing the mussels themselves. But while this tiny shellfish is excellent at its job, finding blue mussels in large enough quantities to draw meaningful conclusions has often been a challenge. Recently, researchers from Norway have experimented with placing caged mussels in a polluted environment and assessing whether they are as efficient at harvesting the contaminants as their naturalised counterparts. The results were interesting.