Mussel cages retrieved from Bornholm basin

The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) has just retrieved the mussels cages that had been deployed as part of CHEMSEA's ecotoxicology studies in the Bornholm basin last May. 

An expedition aboard the r/v Aranda set out in recent days to retrieve the approximately 3200 mussels (Mytilus sp.) that had been left in cages over the past 2.5 months at the CWA dumping site of Bornholm. The cages had been placed in four different sites at a variety of depths, though none too close to the sea bottom where oxygen levels are too low.

 

Although installations at one of the four sites had disappeared, others were succesfully recovered along with the accompanying instrumentation including sensors and data loggers to record temperature, salinity and oxygen content.

 

The exposed mussels will now be analysed for the possible accumulation of CWA and their degradation products as well as biological effects using a comprehensive set of biomarkers indicating possible disturbances in different biological functions at molecular, biochemical and cellular levels.