- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Natural Solution: Blue Mussels to Save Baltic Sea

© Wikipedia / Andreas Trepte Live blue mussels on a rocky substrate
Live blue mussels on a rocky substrate - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The Baltic Sea is one of the world's most polluted, and despite never-ending attempts to reduce emissions large amounts of pollutants and fertilizers continue to flow into it each year. Sweden is now testing new approaches to combat eutrophication, this time with the help of mollusks.

Person shopping tomatoes - Sputnik International
App Against Food Waste Big Hit in Denmark
A pilot farm off the coast of Östergötland County now plans to cultivate blue mussels to promote a more natural cleansing of the Baltic sea, Swedish Radio reported. The blue mussel, which acts as a kind of living sewage treatment, is a great absorber of nitrogen and phosphorus. The mussels feed primarily on phytoplankton, which in turn makes the Baltic waters muddy and sea bottoms devoid of oxygen.

The mussel farm occupies the size of eight football fields and harbors millions of mussels sitting on a total of 24,000 meters of cultivation rope. The ropes were imported from New Zealand and are colloquially called "Christmas trees," as they actually look like Christmas garlands.

"Mussel larvae swim freely in the water for two to three weeks. Then they try to find something to cling onto, and this is when they find my rope," mussel farmer Mats Emilsson said.

Next year, Emilsson plans to remove 230 kilograms of nitrogen and 35 kilograms of phosphorus from the Baltic Sea.

At present, there is no commercial market for the blue mussel in Sweden. Emilsson's mussel farm is financed with EU money, and he hopes that his harvest will be ground down and sold as animal food.

​According to Katarina Elofsson, a researcher in environmental economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), mussels cannot compete with other, cheaper forms of animal feed. Without government support, mussel farming will not be effective against eutrophication, she noted.

"To really tackle eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, it would take a huge number of mussel farms. Say up to 30,000. I do not think it can be realized in the near future," Katarina Elofsson said.

Moose - Sputnik International
Enjoy Your Meal! Swedish Pine Forests Eaten by Hungry Elk
​The Baltic Sea is one of the world's most polluted seas. Despite the €4.6 billion EU contribution to measures against eutrophication, the result has been meager. However, The Gulf of Finland has greatly benefitted from the improved wastewater treatment in Leningrad Region, Russia.

The Baltic Sea is one of the most heavily trafficked seas in the world. There are about 2,000 ships in the Baltic marine area at any given time, mostly cargo vessels and tankers. In recent years, new chemicals have been found there by researchers. Often the substances accumulate and form cocktails with uncharted impacts on the marine ecosystem or humans.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала