Oysters add mussel power

OK, I'm very proud of that article title.

But seriously - research shows that mussels can help oysters clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Oysters have sidekick in Chesapeake Bay cleanup

"[ Keryn ] Gedan found that while oysters are still the filtering kings, because they are more efficient at removing larger plankton, hooked mussels are twice as efficient at removing tiny picoplankton.  She and her colleagues estimate that a restored site with both mussels and oysters will remove more than twice as much plankton as a restored site without mussels.  In fact, in a scenario with a 15-fold increase in oyster reef habitat, which represents restoration of Chesapeake Bay tributary Harris Creek, the model predicted that mussels and oysters together could remove more than 100 percent of the plankton in the summer.  The same restoration without mussels would remove only half of that.

These are especially encouraging signs, because hooked mussels appear commonly on oyster reefs. Sometimes they’re even more plentiful than the oysters."

 Restore the Oysters / Restore the Bay