Central Okanagan

Photo: Contributed - Professional Biologist Dwight Shanner.

Live Western floater and Oregon floater

Mussels are on the move in Summerland.

The indigenous species are being transferred out of a basin near the city's yacht club to protect them while the marina is being dredged. 

The Ministry of Environment gave the yacht club a permit to dredge the area, but they had to conduct an inventory for rare species first.

Senior Fisheries Biologist Darryl Arsenault says one of the rare species found in the area are rocky mountain mussels.

"In this case we didn't know how many were here, so we did an inventory and we found out so far that there are none (of the rocky mountain mussels) here. But at the same time the Ministry of Environment has asked that we move all the other mussels that are in here."

Divers have been working on collecting the mussels for two days. The area is approximately four acres.

Arsenault says all of the scientific data is being collected on the mussels, such as the length, width and depth. It will all be handed over to the Ministry of Environment.

"Then we actually relocate the mussels about 50 to 100 metres from the basin, and place them in the same position as we found them."

The reason the basin is being dredged is due to a silting problem which is causing boats, and the keels of sailboats,  to become stuck. In order to have the marina function as it should the Summerland Yacht Club had to self fund the project.

Bill Laidman the Yacht Club director says at least three feet of silt will have to be removed from the basin.

"When the silt gets picked up and put into a large containment area, which is a large block wall that we've built, that will then allow the water to dissipate back out. So all that will be left will be the silt, which we will transport out of the area."

Several farms within Summerland have already requested the silt for their land.

Over 500 mussels made up of three different species were collected during the move. The dredging will start in October and the project will run for several months, but the yacht club will be ready for the 2013 boating season.