This summer we (the Waddensleutels team) visited all dutch Wadden Islands to collect samples for food web comparisons between mussel beds and surrounding habitats. It was a very successful operation. We collected around 1800 samples of organism that are now going to be analyzed for stable isotopes at the NIOZ, Texel. Sampling involved fishing with fykes (also during nighttime), benthos cores, algal sampling, but also measuring the height profile of the mussel bed, the hydrodynamics, mussel production and much more. We are very grateful for the help of the many volunteers that helped us!  The pictures will tell you much more about the research & show some of our surprising catches, check it out:

Many thanks to Arjen de Ruiter en Peter Visser for providing some of the Pictures!

Also see this newsletter ( in dutch; nieuwsbrief Waddensleutels november 2013)