Mussel Beach

photo by Tamara Smith

Tamara's leg model is Philip Kulkulski, who I know from the ev psych world. He insists he was "not just goofing around":

I was working, looking for freshwater mussels on the bottom of French Creek (named by George Washington while he was on a mission for the British.) I have on a 7 mm wetsuit. It would take 30 pounds of lead to almost sink me. With turbid water and in deeper sections, I had to stick my legs out of the water to sink myself enough to see the bottom.

Here's some hot mussel porn from Farmer Todd, who Philip calls "a fish friend of mine." Synopsis from Philip:

The male mussel releases sperm into the current. The female filters the sperm out as she is feeding. (Aside: this tops the list for the worst sex life for any male creature.)

Aside from Amy:

It can really suck for male praying mantis.

Philip continues:

Later, the female mussel displays a lure, a fish tries to eat it, and the female mussel injects parasitic baby mussels into the fish's gills. The fish swims away (this is how mussels move upstream.) A week later, the mussels fall off and life goes on.