Source: Independent Online, 1 June 2000 [edited]
About a million mussels have washed out of the sand at Bloubergstrand, and
marine scientists are not sure what has caused this unusual phenomenon.
Willie Badenhorst of Blaauwberg Municipality's law enforcement section said
a Bloubergstrand resident had phoned him early on Wednesday to tell him
about the mussels.
"There were mussels everywhere, ankle-deep in places. They stretched for
about 200m along the shore. It must have happened on Tuesday night," he said.
He alerted Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) staff, who took samples. Rob
Tarr, a marine scientist at MCM, said he had not seen a "wash-out" like
this before. He said the mussels might have been scoured out of the sand by
the action of waves in the recent stormy weather.
Staff collected samples which will be tested to establish whether they
could have died from toxins in the water. "It's very unusual. I've seen
banks of black mussels at Paternoster on the West Coast that have been
washed off the rocks after storms, but not white mussels.
"White mussels live in the sand and one would expect them to burrow back if
they are washed out. These are not the white mussels Donax serra people
collect. It's another species called Lutraria lutraria, which is not as
efficient at burrowing if washed out," he said.
- --
M. Cosgriff
mcosgriff@hotmail.com
[This number of mussels washing out of the sand is unusual and is possibly
associated with violent weather, but this may be a case of some other
cause. If someone has any definitive information, please inform us. - Mod. TG]