Mussels credited with cleaning up Albert Dock waters

Liverpool’s famous Albert Dock is the cleanest marina in the UK  - and it’s down to the humble mussel!

The historic docks have consistently earned a Blue Flag award - a title given to beaches and seaways that are clean and safe.

Now environmental scientists from LJMU and the universities of Liverpool and Plymouth have confirmed the good water quality in the both the Albert and Salthouse Docks is the result of the constant biofiltering by the mussels which cover the dock walls and pontoons.

The mussel population are ecosystem engineers – ‘breathing’ in water and filtering out many of the contaminants. They also provided important substrate for invertebrates and macroalgae to flourish.

Exactly how they do it and how they have contributed to clean water after the murk of the 1970s is laid out in detail in a study published this week, with Dr Simone Dürr, of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Dr Geraldine Reed, of National Museums Liverpool, as co-authors.

Following an initial period of poor water quality (high contamination and turbidity, low oxygen), the natural colonization of mussels from Albert Dock in 1988 extended throughout the South Docks. By the mid-1990s, the environment of the South Docks and its mussel populations had stabilized.

Dr Dürr has been leading the Biofouling Programme in the Liverpool South Docks and particularly in Royal Albert Dock since 2008 and she is also a major contributor to Dockwatch, a public engagement with science project which attracts thousands of viewers each summer.

The Dockwatch Team, which is run by the Canals and River Trust, uses seawater tanks, trays and an underwater camera sending live video to a TV in order to demonstrate to the public images of the inhabitants of our underwater dock world.

This summer, as well as the filtering mussels, they could view sea squirts, tubeworms and anemones, jellyfish, shrimps and crabs. The big surprise was the re-appearance of eels after their disappearance last year due to a marine ‘heatwave’.

The School also takes part in a yearly assessment of static sea life (Mussels, barnacles, algae, etcetera known as biofouling) to inform research and to teach marine biology students practical skills for later employment. The programme also involves several funded projects focussing on environmentally friendly antifouling solutions in collaboration with Dr Sheelagh Conlan, Dr Martin Sharp, Dr Juan Ahuir Torres and Prof Andy Shaw. 

Dockwatch is ‘live’ each summer via National Museums Liverpool. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/maritime-museum/event/dockwatch