{"id":236427,"date":"2026-05-19T07:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T07:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/236427\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T07:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T07:49:29","slug":"meet-tina-a-tank-full-of-mussels-helping-to-clean-up-newtown-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/236427\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet TINA, a Tank Full of Mussels Helping to Clean Up Newtown Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new \u201cneighbor\u201d in Greenpoint: TINA, an aquaculture tank, set up beside the Newtown Creek and right next to Kingsland Wildflowers (520 Kingsland Ave.). For six months, TINA will be helping to clean the creek\u2019s water; and it\u2019s worth a visit to see how this important work is getting done.<\/p>\n

TINA is a brainchild of the Newtown Creek Alliance and began operating last month, on Earth Day. The tank draws water from the creek with a pump, then runs the water through saltmarsh cordgrass (Latin name Spartina alterniflora; thus the project name TINA) and hundreds of Atlantic ribbed mussels. The mussels and grass, both of which used to be plentiful within the creek\u2019s ecosystem, help clean and filter the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twice daily, TINA fills with new creek water, passes it through the grass\/mussel system, and releases it back into the creek. Water-quality samples are being taken throughout the duration of the project to see how this is working. By the end of the six-month trial, TINA will have filtered hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nL: TINA on the creek. R: Willis Elkins, Executive Director of Newtown Creek Alliance<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we had a few thousand plugs of marsh grass and a large tank of mussels,\u201d explains Gus Perry, NCA\u2019s Restoration and Marine Projects Coordinator, \u201cstaged for two separate, concurrent restoration projects. We pitched the idea of TINA, which combines these concepts into one, to ConEdison\u2014since their climate-resilience partnership has funded some of our other intertidal projects. And they liked the concept!\u201d He adds that TINA\u2019s roots can be seen in other fields: \u201cThe design is similar to aquaculture tanks used in commercial shellfish operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s launch coincides with the start of Friday-evening Open Hours<\/a> for Kingsland Wildflowers. This is a time to meet TINA, explore the space\u2019s green roofs, and chat with NCA\u00a0staff. (Some of the Open Hours evenings feature music, as well.) Kingsland Wildflowers and its staff can also be accessed during scheduled public programming<\/a>; or on Monday to Friday by appointment<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though TINA is working hard, Perry notes that its components should be occurring in the creek naturally. \u201c[The tank is] no replacement for actual shoreline restoration,\u201d he says. NCA and its partners have initiated, and maintain, several projects along these lines; for instance, they constructed two \u201cliving docks\u201d<\/a> in the creek that encourage growth of the native grasses and repopulation of the native marine life. But help is needed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to see more efforts to restore sections of saltmarsh in Newtown Creek and other urban waterways,\u201d Perry reflects. We hope people can realize the importance of coastal wetland and similar ecosystems.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, TINA represents a novel approach to measurable progress\u2014and to showing what could happen given large quantities of cordgrass and mussels in and around the creek. \u201cWe\u2019re getting to show off some creative, nature-based solutions for improving water quality in Newtown Creek,\u201d says Perry. \u201cWe\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new \u201cneighbor\u201d in Greenpoint: TINA, an aquaculture tank, set up beside the Newtown Creek and right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,1418,2422,92503,9,24,92504,92505,63,86645],"class_list":["post-236427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-featured-article","tag-greenpoint","tag-gus-perry","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newtown-creek","tag-newtown-creek-alliance","tag-nyc","tag-tina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}