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.
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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.
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