THE FOOD VALUE OF SEA MUSSELS. 
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By IRVING A. FIELD. 
U. S. Fisheries Laboratory , Woods Hole, Mass. 
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INTRODUCTION. 
The purpose of this report is to make known the character and food value of one of 
our abundant, nutritious, and palatable sea products which has been little utilized up 
to the present time. The substance of a previous paper on the subject a is here added 
to and amplified into a more complete, and, it is hoped, more useful discussion. 
The sea mussel has been, so far as most of this country is concerned, in the category 
of many other unappreciated resources which have later become valuable. Familiar 
examples are the sturgeon and the eel. Finnan haddie, too, have only recently come 
into popular favor. The large snail, or abalone, of the California coast, at first eaten 
only by the Chinese, is now relished by the American palate. Raising frogs for market 
is now a profitable industry in various parts of the United States, although in 1903 
a bill introduced into the Pennsylvania legislature for the protection of frogs was 
greeted with shouts of laughter. The mussel bids fair to become as valuable as any 
of these products, for its merits are unquestionable, once the groundless prejudice shall 
have given way. 
The basis of this report is a series of investigations carried on during three summers 
for the United States Bureau of Fisheries at its laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEA MUSSEL. 
FORM AND STRUCTURE. 
The common sea mussel, Mytilus edulis (pi. xvm, fig. 1), along with the oyster and 
clam, is a member of the class Lamellibranchia in the phylum Mollusca. In form it is 
triangular ovate. The umbo or beak is much pointed and is situated at the anterior end 
of the valves (pi. xix, fig. 3). In size it measures from 2 to 4 inches in length and from 
1 to 1 p2 inches in diameter. Occasionally specimens 4 yi inches long are found. The 
color of the shell proper varies from violet to pale blue. Externally it is covered with 
a horny epidermis of shining blue-black. The sea mussel is most apt to be confused 
a Field, I. A: Sea mussels and dogfish as food. Proceedings Fourth International Fishery Congress, Bulletin U. S 
Bureau of Fisheries, vol. xxvm, 1908, p. 241-257. 
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