The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Mussel Watch Program is a biennial community science program. In October, teams of Puget Soundkeeper volunteers install cages of mussels throughout Puget Sound at a late-night low tide. Volunteers collect the mussels three months later and WDFW analyzes mussel tissue to determine the accumulation of various pollutants.
Upcoming volunteer opportunities will be listed on this page.
Mussel Watch Program Background
Mussel Watch, coordinated by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, engages community science volunteers in using mussels to evaluate the geographic extent and magnitude of nearshore contamination in Puget Sound biota. It is the longest running continuous chemical contaminant monitoring program in U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters, and was created in response to concerns over environmental quality of the Nation’s coastal and estuarine ecosystems. WDFW’s Mussel Watch Program analyzes chemical and biological contaminant trends in sediment and bivalve tissue collected at over 300 coastal sites from 1986 to present.
