This
boat was in the water for five months at East Bay Marina,
contaminated with mussels and tunicates. Very few barnacles.
We have no science to back up our observations, but it does seem
that where mussels go, the tunicates follow.
Colonization
of Gallo mussels on oysters at Walker Flat, Totten Inlet.
This never occurred prior to installation of the rafts. June 1997.
Single
shell oysters grown in plastic mesh bags, a newer method of
growing. Inside the bags, mussels have attached to the
oysters-escapement, colonization. June 1997
Mytilus
galloprovinciallis mussel, a Gallo, being held in the very large
hand of an APHETI member in 1997. This is larger than the
native and current science indicates it has already hybridized
with the native, yielding an even larger mussel.
Colonization
of Gallo mussels on a moorage line in Totten Inlet (1997).
Clam farmers in Hammersley Inlet complained that the mussels had
attached to their clam netting.
Mussels
displaced barnacles on boat left in water for one year at Carlyon
Beach, 1997.
Same
boat, different view. Boat repair companies report that the
mussels enter fresh-water intake system as spat, then attach and
grow inside , causing expensive repairs. October 1997.
Club
and colonial tunicates (Styela clava and Didemnum species) on the
back of a boat in Hammersley Inlet.
Gallagher
Cove- Tunicates and mussel clusters removed from a floating dock.
Both compete for the same food source. These tunicates have
become a huge problem in Hood Canal; They smother what they cover
and are now in the South Sound Inlets.
Another
view of mussel and tunicate colonization. None of this
occurred prior to 1997.
. |