Oregon mussels died at alarming rates this summer. Researchers don’t know why

Like many sea creatures, mussels along Oregon’s coastline are struggling. Their population took a sudden nose dive this summer, and researchers aren’t sure what’s behind the die-off.

This mystery is what brought Oregon State University professor and marine ecologist Bruce Menge and his research team to a tide pool in Depoe Bay in mid-August. Wearing waterproof overalls and looking out at the restless ocean, Menge said mussels at research sites across Oregon have been dying at alarming rates since June.

“And they’re doing it in sort of a random way,” Menge said. “It’s not all the mussels in a given area, but it’s one here, one there, one over there. But it adds up to numbers that are way higher than anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Menge says researchers in British Columbia and Northern California have also seen an uptick in mussel deaths, but the trend doesn’t seem to extend farther south.