Wildlife

Cooked Mussels

Unseasonable heat along the Northern California coast during June thoroughly cooked mussels exposed above the water at low tide, leaving their shells gaping wide in 100-degree heat.

It was the largest die-off of mussels in at least 15 years at Bodega Head, where some say it was worse than during the 2004 heat wave.

The hottest weather north of San Francisco typically occurs later in the summer, when the low tides exposing the mussels happen in the cooler mornings or at night.