Louisiana Foods Fish Fact for:
MUSSELS

While other shellfish grab headlines because of management and health concerns, mussels continue to plug discreetly along, consistent, delicious and, for the most part, cheap. The bearded bivalves are still a great value. U.S. landings of cultivated and wild mussels have soared by 1,000% since 1975 to about 20,000 tons annually, and the international trade in mussels also has jumped dramatically - with U.S. exports jumping 920% since 1989. Meanwhile, even though mussel farming on the U.S. East Coast has fluctuated the last few years (because of the discovery of huge wild beds off New England), it's growing steadily on the West Coast, where most of the production is high quality, ropegrown product. Ditto on the international front. New Zealand's largest producer of greenshell mussels plans to double its production in 1995, and Canada's leading mussel producing province, Prince Edward Island, has doubled its mussels output since 1990 to around 6,000 tons.

Species Specifics
  • There are three distinct species of blue mussels harvested in the U.S.: Mytilus edulis, the major mussel of Atlantic Canada and the U.S. East Coast; Mytilus galloprovincialis, farmed on the West Coast from Washington to Southern California; and Mytilus trossulus, indigenous from Alaska to California.
  • Depending on the species and the environment, it takes anywhere from two to five years for a mussel to reach market size.
  • Unlike the other two species of blue mussels, the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis spawns in winter, rendering it perfect to eat in the summer.
  • U.S. importers brought in 4,135 tons of greenshell mussels Perna canaliculus from New Zealand in 1994, up from 3,061 tons in 1993. About 80% of that was frozen.
  • The fan mussel Pinna fragilis is the world's largest mussel. Found in British waters, it measures up to 15 inches long.

Mussel Igloos
Severe winters in Northeast Canada make it almost impossible for mussel growers to harvest their crop. But in the Magdalen Islands, located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, growers have again proved that necessity is the mother of invention. And in this case the invention is a caterpillar tracked igloo. Two operators cut a hole in the ice, hauling up their mussel lines in a warm, safe igloo. In whiteout conditions they use satellite navigation systems in the igloos to find their mussels.

The above information is from the Seafood Leader, Vol. 15, No. 5
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