Mussels moving north

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS

Mussels have been found growing on the seabed just 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole, a likely sign of global warming, scientists told Reuters news service last week.

The blue mussels, normally found in warmer waters off France or the eastern U.S., were discovered last month off Norway’s Svalbard Islands in waters that are covered with ice most of the year.

“The climate is changing fast,” Geir Johnsen, a professor at the Norwegian University for Science and Technology, told Reuters. The mussels are a “very good indicator that the climate is warming,” he said.

“It seems like the mussels we found are two to three years old,” he said.

Mussels have not been recorded off the islands since Viking times 1,000 years ago, during another warm period.

Scientists monitoring Svalbard say the ice-free limit this summer near the islands hasn’t been so far north since 1751.