Middle School Marine Metre Square (MM2) Group Get Mussley!

Today the Middle School Enviro Monitors answered the call to become citizen scientists. We're going to collect data to help marine biologists save the Hauraki Gulf!

Find out more at:

https://www.mm2.net.nz/

Our first investigation was all about mussels. Mrs Daniel had collected two containers of water from the Tamaki Estuary. We saw how the water with mussels in was much clearer. Did you know the Hauraki Gulf used to covered in mussels until humans tredged them all? The water used to be way clearer from all the mussels filtering it.

Next we dissected the mussels to learn more about them. Here's some things we we found out:

Angus - Mussels actually have genders.

Sophie - Females are orange and males are white.

Isabelle - Mussels clean the ocean by filtering the water.

Amy - The white circle makes the shell stick together.

Kamden - If there's no mussels you can't see your feet in the water cause it's so gunky.

Liam - Mussels are closed out of the water and open in the water.

Next week we're looking forward to finding out more about those carnivorous whelks; cute but deadly to crabs! We're going to identify the shellfish we might find in the estuary too.