Culture of edible molluscs is now recognised
as an effective way of enhancing food production
and sea mussels among all the known cultivable
organisms, give the highest production rate for
two reasons : (1) they feed directly on the primary
producers namely the phytoplankton and (2) it is
farmed three-dimensionally in the water colunm
at the farm site. The world production of mussels
amounted to 13,37,551 tonnes in 1988 (FAO, 1992)
of which 10,86,310 t originated from culture.
China ranks first in the production of cultured
mussels in the world, followed by Spain, Italy,
Netherlands, Denmark and France
