Prizes for Finding Horse Mussel Beds
Dense horse mussel bed near Pakiri. Photo by NIWA 1996.
We believe that unknown horse mussel beds might still exist in the Hauraki Gulf and that by studying them we can help restore this habitat. We are offering a $500 prize for any 'good' beds found in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. We are defining these as:
3-5 horse mussels per square meter
Roughly 10m by 10m in size
More than 60% of the horse mussels are alive
A good bed is at least 100sqm of seafloor containing a minimum of 300 live horse mussels.
The prize will be available until June 2023.
A photo, description and GPS co-ordinates are required for entry.
The prize will be paid after the bed has been confirmed.
Science for Nature will decide if the bed qualifies for the prize.
There will be one prize winner per bed found.
The first person to report a bed wins the prize for that bed.
For the purposes of this competition if a bed extends more than 100m then it will be considered as two beds.
There is no entry fee.
There is no limit to number of entries per person.
The total prize money is capped at $10,000.
Science for Nature accepts no responsibility for your actions on or under the water, please take care out there and act responsibly.
Send your photo and GPS position to jlaurence@sciencefornature.org.nz
If you know of or suspect there are horse mussel beds somewhere but don't dive or have an underwater camera or ROV we recommend teaming up with divers with cameras to get the prize. How you spilt the prize is up to you, Science for Nature will pay one winner per bed.
We note it is often difficult to tell if horse mussels are dead without killing them. The amount of growth on them is an indication that they may be old and dead, see below:
