Photos in collage by Kristina Svedberg, and submarine mussel lines by Daniel Taylor, DTU.
How many mussels can you spot in the photo? Fouling is what hides them: all the species that latch to any surface in the ocean, including the (hidden) mussels in the image. As a result of fouling, farmers can struggle to sell the mussels, therefore fouling is one of the main barriers to efficient blue mussels aquaculture production.
Kristina Svedberg, marine biologist, explained to us:
– What is fouling?
– Why is this a problem?
– How do we get rid of the worms?
– The future of research
All to turn current waste of #mussel farmers into a sustainable resource for the future.
Kristina Svedberg is a marine biologist at Swedish aquaculture company Bohus Havsbruk. She did her master thesis in 2019 on the decreasing blue mussel population for IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and has after that continued working with research on mussel conservation and how to use by-products from aquaculture as a resource. She will present a heat-based anti-fouling field system for reducing the biofouling of calcifying worms.
