EUCC has been granted € 6 million for the recovery of mussel beds in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Most of the money comes from the Dutch Waddenfonds, whilst 10% comes from the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) and the provinces Friesland and North Holland. EUCC will implement this project together with IMARES (Wageningen University), NIOZ and SOVON (both Texel), NIOO-CEME (Yerseke) and Utrecht University. The project is named MOSSELWAD and ends in 2014. Within the MOSSELWAD project new experimental mussel beds will be constructed and the development of recovering mussel beds will be followed during a four year period. The project will look at stability, biodiversity, sediment transport and the importance of wading and diving birds. The project will deliver an enlarged area of mussel beds in the Wadden Sea and a manual for the recovery and maintenance of mussel beds in shallow coastal seas.In this framework, EUCC will actively seek co-operation with other projects and research activities in the Wadden Sea and in other countries in Europe along the Atlantic.

The project started 1 July 2009 with the elaboration of a detailed work plan.

More information available in Dutch at www.mosselwad.nl