Blue Mussel

The blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) is a bivalve mollusc of cold-temperate rocky shores of the North Atlantic, grown worldwide for food. It forms dense beds that shelter other species and filter large volumes of seawater.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Blue Mussel in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Lophotrochozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

Mussels anchor themselves with protein threads secreted from the foot. The glue proteins contain the unusual amino acid DOPA, which bonds to wet surfaces, and the chemistry has inspired medical and underwater adhesives.

Because mussels filter water and accumulate pollutants in their tissues, they are monitored to track contamination along coasts, as in NOAA's Mussel Watch program. Warmer, more acidic seas can weaken their shells and threads. See Ocean acidification.

Bivalves, including mussels, can carry transmissible cancers that spread between individuals through seawater, with cancer cells passing from one animal to another. Related species like the California mussel are classic study systems for keystone predation by sea stars.

• Ocean acidification — shell formation under acidified seawater
• NOAA — runs the Mussel Watch program