SOUTH PUGET SOUND BASELINE STUDY

APHETI is doing a baseline study to identify and monitor expanded colonizations of the Gallo mussel and their hybrids in the South Sound Inlets.  While some early introductions of exotic mussels came from ballast water discharged from ships entering Puget Sound, Taylor Resources Inc has intentionally introduced the Mytilus galloprovincialis mussels into Totten Inlet.  This is a matter of public record.  Areas of colonization are occurring as was feared.  Population size of an exotic species often remains relatively low after initial introduction and then can rapidly increase years later.  This species has taken over the shorelines of southern California and South Africa.  It has displaced native species and altered those local food chains.

When a non-native species is intentionally introduces into an area, it can displace local species.  As for Mytilus galloprovincialis mussels displacing the native Mytilus trossolus species entirely, time will tell.  Equally worrisome is the hybridization that has already come from their union, and with it, unpredictable reproduction patterns.  The science still has not been done to answer questions that governmental agencies are not asking.