Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Mussels 'cooked alive' in balmy New Zealand ocean
ADVERTISEMENT

Wellington, Feb 19 (AFP) Feb 19, 2020
Up to half a million mussels were effectively cooked in the wild in unusually balmy waters on the New Zealand coast in a massive "die-off" that marine experts have linked to climate change.

The dead molluscs were found by Auckland man Brandon Ferguson earlier this month at Maunganui Bluff Beach, near the northern tip of the North Island.

Footage posted to social media shows a stunned Ferguson wading through rockpools choked almost knee-deep with mussel shells remarking "they're all dead... there's nothing left".

Professor Chris Battershill, a marine ecologist at Waikato University, said there had been similar die-off in recent years involving tuatua cockles and clams.

"The common denominators seem to be really hot conditions with lots of sunlight and unusually calm waters for an extended period," he told AFP.

"This leads to a combination of heat stress and the animals running out of oxygen because the water's so still. They eventually succumb... they're effectively cooked alive."

Battershill the extreme conditions were unusual.

"Is it related to climate change, I think it is," he said.

"Mussels are hardy little animals -- you think about when they're harvested they survive in the supermarket with just a little water on them.

"So it's taken extreme conditions to kill them. And when you have a number of die-offs in recent years involving a number of species then you really need to sit up and take notice."

University of Auckland marine scientist Andrew Jeffs said more mass die-offs were likely to occur as a result of climate change.

He said mussel populations would eventually move to cooler waters as temperatures rose.

"I am expecting that it is likely to ultimately result in the displacement of mussel beds from shores in northern parts of the country with them continuing to be found further south," he told AFP.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Technical setback delays launch of final Delta IV Heavy
Japan Moon probe survives second lunar night
Europe space telescope's sight restored after de-icing procedure

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Revolutionizing Particle Physics: AI's Role in Deciphering Complex Particle Paths
UC San Diego Scientists Unveil Plant-Based Polymers that Biodegrade Microplastics in Months
Cambridge working to unlock new solar energy pathways

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
AI generates high-quality images 30 times faster in a single step
Aerospacelab and Xona Unite to Transform Satellite Navigation
GITAI's robotic system triumphs in ISS demo

24/7 News Coverage
'Just staggering': UN says households waste 1 bn meals a day
Neolithic Mariners: Unveiling the Mediterranean's Oldest Boats
Greece to buy seven Canadian water bombers for wildfires


All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.