Millions of mussels, clams wash up dead during heat wave

A record-breaking heat wave affecting the Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada has cooked millions of mussels, clams and other sea creatures alive.

About two weeks ago, Alyssa Gehman, who studies marine ecology community, was looking to go for a swim along Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia, to escape the heat.

“The first thing I noticed as I was walking down to the beach was that it smelled quite terrible,” Gehman told USA TODAY. “There was a rotting, baking shellfish smell.”

As she came across the edge of the water, she noticed beds of dead mussels on the beach.

“I also saw dead crabs floating by,” Gehman said. “And that was really sad to me, and it was also indicative that there’s likely many animals that were also killed during this heat wave event.”

Christopher Harley, a marine ecologist who also observed the dead creatures on Kitsilano

Beach, said it looked like “an ecological catastrophe” he had never seen before.

Back at the Hurley Lab in the University of British Columbia, where he and Gehman work, the researchers are looking into the broader ramifications of the mass mortality of animals on the shores of many places, including Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver, Stanley Park in Vancouver, and other islands nearby.

Mussels are one of the animals they have been examining.

According to Gehman, mussels during low tide tightly close their shells and keep water inside of them so they don’t dry out.

The death of the sea creatures can affect entire ecosystems, too. For instance, one mussel can filter up to 6 gallons of water a day, Gehman says, which means the mussel cleans the water out and make it so the water is clear.

Shellfish like mussels and clams provide food for other species, including starfish and migratory seabirds, and provide habitat.