The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Mussel Watch Program is a biennial community science program. Teams of Puget Soundkeeper volunteers install mussel cages at several shoreline sites in King County during mid-November late-night low tides. Volunteers collect the mussels three months later and WDFW analyzes mussel tissue to determine the accumulation of various pollutants.
We are about to begin recruitment for the 2025/2026 winter Mussel Watch deployment and retrieval. Make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter so you never miss an announcement.
You can see the Story Map about the program. The last published Status report can be found HERE.
Mussel Watch Program Background
Washington State Mussel Watch, coordinated by the Washington Department of Fish and Toxics Biological Observation System (TBiOS) team, engages community science volunteers to evaluate the geographic extent and magnitude of contamination in the Puget Sound nearshore environment.
Every other winter, volunteers transplant relatively clean caged native bay mussels (Mytilus trossulus) from a local aquaculture source to more than 80 nearshore sites throughout the Puget Sound and Washington Pacific coast shoreline. The tissues from the mussels are analyzed after three months of exposure. The team looks for a suite of contaminants including persistent organic pollutants (e.g. PCBs, PAHs), metals (e.g. lead, copper), and emerging contaminants of concern (e.g. pharmaceuticals and personal care products). Data from this program provides information on the health of biota living in the nearshore and supports adaptive management programs such as the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP) - Vital Sign Toxics in Aquatic Life in Aquatic Life and Washington Department of Ecology’s Stormwater Action Monitoring (SAM) program, as well as NOAA’s National Mussel Watch program.
You can see the Story Map about the program here. The last published Status report can be found HERE .
