Dalnie Zelentsy (Mytilus), Russia

Dalnie Zelentsy is a litte village in northern Russia, in the north east of Murmansk, on the bay of Zelentskaia, Barents Sea. It is reached after a few hours of rocky drive. We set up 2 valvometers in the bay: one with icelandic scallops (Chlamys islandica), one with mussels (Mytilus edulis). This is done in late September, early October (2012-2013).

We thanks the Russian authorities to allow this installation.

The installation has been set up by the CNRS, the University of Bordeaux and the MMBI (Murmansk Marine Biological Institute) and financed by TOTAL according to its Safety, Environmnent and Health policy.

Twos films to discover the underwater life in the Bay of Dalnie (Film 1; Film 2) and a nice news paper with lovely pictures

The Marine Biological Station ot the MMBI at Dalnie Zelentsy now abandoned

Mytilus edulis

A group of 16 blue mussels Mytilus edulis has been set at a depth of 16 m (in fact, 14-18 m depending on the tide)

The pictures below illustrate some steps of the setting that took 2.5 days. A total length of 230 m of umbilical cable is used to connect the animals, set close to the buoy visible in the bay, on the right of the picture just below, to the lab on the shore.

Underwater photograph of the blue mussels at - 16 m in the Bay of Zelentskaia (courtesy of M. Makarov)

The umbilical cable goes first in a trench under a road...

...then below large stone blocks before reaching a sandy beach...

...and the water. Here, lauching the valvometers

The shore and, in the upper left corner, the MMBI lab of algology from where the umbilical cable starts running under a road and a pebble beach with large stones, down to the sea

From left to right, Dr Alexander Gudimov, Pierre Ciret and Prof. Mikhail Makarov. On the wall, upper left corner, the plastic box containing the upper electronic from where the umbilical cable starts running to the sea