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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the radula tears out the flesh of its 

 victim. 



The cockles, Ncvi'ritd duplicaia and 

 Liinatia hews, are occasionally very 

 destructive enemies of the sea mussel. 

 They are armed with rasping tongues 

 that bear chitin-like teeth, with which 

 they are able to bore holes about one- 

 fifth of an inch in diameter through the 

 mussel's shell. They then insert a 

 proboscis through the opening and 

 literally dcNour the helpless animal alive. 



Closely related to the cockles in habit 

 are the oyster drill, Urosalpiu.v cincrca, 

 and the dog whelk. Purpura Japilhis. 

 They drill smaller holes through the 

 shell than do the cockles but feed on the 

 living animal in the same manner. 

 Being more abundant, how^ever, they 

 are far more destructive. In one case 

 I saw a small mussel community com- 

 pletely destroyed by them. 



Fishes of various species are ravenous 

 feeders on mussels. Killifish, cunners, 

 scup and tautog greedily strip them 

 from the wharf piles and from the beds. 

 Squeteague, flounders, codfish and eels 

 also devour them in great quantities. 

 The fact that mussels constitute the best 

 bait known, next to squid, indicates how 

 they rank as food for fishes. 



The enemies of the mussel are not 

 limited to the water in which it lives, for 

 from the air above herring gulls, night 

 herons, crows and wihl ducks descend 

 upon the beds greedily to eat the young 

 shellfish. The common gray rat and 

 the muskrat pay frequent visits for the 

 same purpose. Seals, especially young 

 ones, feed largely upon mussels, but the 

 mammal which uses them most exten- 

 sively is the walrus, for which they consti- 

 tute the sole food. The walrus crushes 

 the shellfish in its mouth, throws out the 

 shell and swallows the fleshy parts. 



The struggle for existence against 

 such a host of enemies would seem to 

 foreshadow extinction; but when we 



weigh against these destructi^•e forces 

 the wonderful powers of reproduction,, 

 and the inexhaustible food supply that 

 can be utilized by the mussel, it is easy 

 to understand why this tremendous- 

 drain on the mussel population is having- 

 no perceptible effect. Indeed competi- 

 tion in the community itself probably 

 results in a greater mortality than is- 

 caused by all its enemies combined. 

 Enormous numbers of mussels are being- 

 smothered to death daily by their own 

 offspring which in the struggle for exist- 

 ence bury their parents beneath them- 

 selves. 



From an economic standpoint the 

 mussel community should bear a more 

 important relation to man as a source of 

 food supply.^ The mussel collects the 

 elements which form the ultimate food 

 basis of marine animals, reconstructs- 

 them into mussel flesh and reproduces- 

 countless individuals, and they in tura 

 become subsistence for other animals. 

 The flesh of the sea mussel is actualljr 

 the most valuable in nutritive principles- 

 of all shellfish and in palatability and 

 digestibility it ranks second to none. 

 As a nation we have been wasting one 

 of our great national resources by failing: 

 to make more extensive use of the vast 

 quantities of sea mussels annually pro- 

 duced along our shores. The estimate is 

 easily within the limits of probability 

 that more than twenty million pounds- 

 of this shellfish on our Atlantic Coast are 

 available for the market annually. 



In the light of our present knowledge 

 it is proper to say when viewing a shoal 

 of mussels, "There is one of the greatest 

 organizations in nature for making flesh 

 food by a short and rapid process." 

 Surely the humble mussel is fulfilling a 

 benevolent mission in this world. 



1 Sea Mussels, What They Are, and How to 

 Cook Them. Econoinic Circular No. 12 is a publica- 

 tion that may be obtained free on request from the 

 Commissioner of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 



