Mytilus Californianus the California Mussel

Mytilus Californianus the California Mussel

Mytilus Californianus, also known as the California mussel, is one of the most common creatures on California's rocky shores and in tide pools. They are generally grayish black in color and have very hard shells that only the strongest (or smartest) of predators can open. These mussels attach themselves to rocks very tightly. From time to time they sneak their foot out and touch the rocks, secreting a special thread of cement. After doing this several times, these threads of cement hold the mussel to the rock, sometimes permanently.

Once a mussel has found a home, it opens little valves on it's sides slightly to let in seawater and food particles. Much like a fish, it filters the food from the water by using it's gills. Mussels like to eat mostly fine organic material and plankton. When a large group of mussels get together they can take in about 35 tons of food in a year.

Colonies of mussels are often hurt badly by big waves on the open coast. Seastars often eat mussels and pry some of them off of rocks. Holes in these colonies can cause the waves to break more of them off the rocks, much like soil erosion when trees are cut down. A rock face that has been completely cleared of mussels takes about 2.5 years to be repopulated.

Taxonomy and Description

Mytilus Californianus, also known as the ribbed mussel, C alifornia sea mussel, rock mussel, and big mussel are classified as belonging to the Phylum Mollusca, Class Bivalvia, Subclass Pteriomorphia, Order Filibrancha, Suborder Mytilacea, and Family Mytilidae. The genus Mytildae, of which California mussels are a part .

M. Californianus is a bivalue mollusk which has a generally triangular and inequilateral shell. It can be...

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...ed by pollution and Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP). No mussels can be sold for human consumption from May 1st to October 31st because of the presence of PSP. The consumption of the mussels that have been concentrated large amounts of poison- producing microscopic Dinoflagellate Gonyaulax Catenella sometimes causes serious illness.

In my observations at Royal Palms, Mytilus Californianus seemed to flourish most on wave-swept rocks along the shore. There were however, many M. Californianus' shells where they may once populated or washed up on during a higher tide, but eventually dried out due to the lack of organisms they usually feed on. Since they feed on a variety of organisms and on the detritus of plants and animals. Colonies of mussels are most abundant on rocks closer to the water where the population of these organisms on which they feed on are dense.