By Oliver Ohmann
A missing shopping cart has turned up in the middle of Mitte. It stands on the banks of the Spree, not far from the Weidendammer Bridge – and is overgrown with shells.
You can’t believe your eyes. The commercial shopping trolley (value: 150 euros) is littered with small shells. You can’t even tell which supermarket it originally came from. Unknowns recently fished him out of the Spree. It is barely two meters deep here near the shore. The water is so clear that you can easily see the bottom – and there is quite a bit more.
Scrap is regularly salvaged from the capital river. According to the Environmental Senate, 400 cubic meters per year, 20 garbage trucks full. Including everything that is easily accessible on the bank: bicycles, e-scooters and construction signs.
Derk Ehlert, Wildlife Advisor for the State of Berlin, checked the unusual mussel bank for the BZ. “You can clearly see zebra mussels and zebra mussels on the wagon. Neither are native, but immigrated mussel species.”
How long did the car have to lie at the bottom of the Spree to be overgrown with such river mussels? Ehlert: “Probably at least since last spring. Because mussels multiply and grow best at water temperatures of 10 to 12 degrees.”
Could almost be chic – the handle of the shopping cart covered with shells Photo: Ohman
The fact that they then settle on metal is not unusual, says the wildlife expert. “Many objects that are pulled out of the Spree are overgrown with mussels.” By the way, mussels are very useful, they filter tons of cloudy suspended matter out of the water, like a natural sewage treatment plant.
They are also edible…