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Bay Mussel - Mytilus trossulus

Common Names Bay Mussel
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Family Mytilidae
Elevations Middle intertidal. Elevation limited by seastar populations at lower intertidal and dessication at upper intertidal.
Distribution Temperate waters around the world.
Community Saline environments with enough current to support bivalves. More common in bays and estuaries, and occasionally on the outer coast.
Substrate Rocks, docks, pilings, floats and gravel.
Attachment It attaches to the substrate with its many fine, tough, byssal threads.
Size 6 to 10 cm long, 3 to 5 high.
Description Shiny blue-black to black or brownish; shell has a long rounded triangular shape.
Wave-Exposure High Tolerance
Habitat Significance Provide a source of food for many marine organisms including sea stars, birds, and fish. The tangled mass of mussels and byssus forms homes for numerous small creatures.
Mistaken Identity Mytilus edulis, or the Blue Mussel, is only found on the Atlantic. It is easily mistaken for the Bay Mussel in apperance with the exception that it is black instead of blue.
Typical Abundance Grows into thick, dense clumps.
Protection While the Bay Mussel does provide an abundant food source for many organisms, it is very common along coastal British Columbia and therefore is not critical habitat. However, it is still important habitat and areas lost are usually made up for by placement of additional rock in the intertidal.


The common name mussel is used for members of several different families of clams or bivalve molluscs, from both saltwater and freshwater habitats. The one thing that these different groups have in common, is that they have a shell whose outline is somewhat elongated and asymmetrical compared with that of many other edible clams, the shells of which are often more or less rounded or oval in shape.

The word "mussel" is most frequently used to mean the edible bivalves of the marine family Mytilidae, most of which live on exposed shores in the intertidal zone, attached by means of their strong byssal threads ("beard") to a firm substrate. A few species (in the genus Bathymodiolus) have colonized hydrothermal vents associated with deep ocean ridges.

In most marine mussels the shell is longer than it is wide, being wedge-shaped or asymmetrical. The external color of the shell is often dark blue, blackish, or brown, while the interior is silvery and somewhat nacreous.

The freshwater Zebra mussels and their relatives in the family Dreissenidae are not related to either of the previously mentioned groups, even though they resemble many Mytilus species in shape, and live attached to rocks and other hard surfaces in a similar manner, using a byssus. They are classified with the Heterodonta, the taxonomic group which includes most of the bivalves commonly referred to as "clams".




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Last updated April 7, 2009 by WCA.
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