Species and Habitat Outlines

Blue Mussels
TAXONOMY

Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Mytiloida
Family: Mytilidae

 

ECOLOGICAL DATA

Distribution: common and widely distributed along B.C. coast.

Habitat: rocky shorelines; attach to rocks, gravel, compact mud, man-made hard surfaces, and floating or suspended objects near the water surface; planktonic larvae dispersed by current; larvae first settle on filamentous algae or hydroids and then attach permanently to rock substrate.

Tidal elevation: intertidal to 45 m subtidal depth; dense colonization between 1.5 to 3.7 m tide levels.

Food: suspension feeder; small plankton, including phytoplankton, bacteria, zooplankton and detritus.

Predators: diving ducks, sea stars, crabs, snails, sea urchins.

GROWTH RATE

Lower intertidal individuals have more rapid growth than higher intertidal ones; sexually mature in 1 yr; reaches 50 mm in 2 yr intertidally, or 1 yr using raft culture; many seem to die after one spawning.

FISHERY

Small culturing operations beginning in B.C.; small sport and Native harvest.

REFERENCES

Bayne, B.L. 1976. The biology of mussel larvae, p. 81-120. In B.L. Bayne [ed.] Marine mussels: their ecology and physiology. Int. Biol. Programme 10. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

Bernard, F.R. 1983. Catalogue of the living bivalvia of the eastern Pacific Ocean: Bering Strait to Cape Horn. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 61: 18.

Heritage, G.D. 1986. Mussels, p. 31-34. In G.S. Jamieson and K. Francis [ed.] Invertebrate and marine plant fishery resources of British Columbia. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 91.

Quayle, D.B. 1978. The intertidal bivalves of British Columbia. B.C. Prov. Mus. Handb. 17: 22-23.

Seed, R. 1976. Ecology, p. 13-65. In B.L. Bayne [ed.] Marine mussels: their ecology and physiology. Int. Biol. Programme 10. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

Suchanek, T.H. 1981. The role of disturbance in the evolution of life history strategies in the intertidal mussels Mytilus edulis and Mytilus californianus. Oecol. 50: 143-152.

For more information on Blue Mussel habitat utilization and life cycle - click here.

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