Without the filtering power of mussel reefs the waters of the Hauraki Gulf have become murkier and more vulnerable to the effects of inappropriate/poorly managed land.
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Mussels are filter feeders pumping water, phytoplankton (microscopic plants) and other particles through their gills. A single mussel can filter up to 350 litres of seawater daily. This means that at their prime seabed mussels could have filtered the water of the Firth every day. Now it would take two years for the few remaining reefs to do this.
Kiwi ingenuity led to mussels being farmed on ropes in the Gulf to supply hungry markets. Fishers know that snapper love mussels too so mussel farms have become one of most the popular fishing spots in the Gulf.
Mussels provide places for animals, like the eagle ray and octopus, to shelter and grow. Not only do they act as nurseries for juvenille fish, ten times more fish and massive numbers of small invertebrates and other marine life are associated with mussel reefs.
Water quality in the Hauraki Gulf is deteriorating with the increasing load of pollution and sediment it receives from discharges and runoff from farmland and urban areas. But there is hope! If we can restore the historic mussel beds so that they can filter the water as they used to, we can clean up the Hauraki Gulf and enable the fish stocks and other ecology to recover.
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