When we go to a seafood market, we can often see a very long shellfish, thick and long, like an elephant's nose, and sometimes it will spew water.
That's pretty much how it sprayed
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > this is the famous elephant mussel. </h1>
It belongs to the mollusc phylum , Bivalves , Sea Mantis , Submerged Clams , and Goddess Clams. Also known as the elegant goddess clam.
Its official name is the Pacific Diving Mud Clam (scientific name: Panopea abrupta), and the Panopea Panopea in its name is one of the fifty daughters of the ancient sea gods Žônes and Doris in Greek mythology.
The little sea fairy was too shy to serve Hercules with her forty-nine sisters, and missed the opportunity to bear offspring for Hercules like her forty-nine sisters.
hercules
Judging from the habits of the elephant mussel, this name is still very appropriate, and the elephant mussel (for convenience, the most common name in the text) usually lives in the mud and sand of the seabed, rarely revealing its true body, and is indeed very shy.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > life habits</h1>
Elephant mussels feed on single-celled algae in seawater, and also eat food debris and sediments that fall from the upper layers, and only the inlet and outlet pipes will expose the opening when eating, and the rest of the body is hidden.
An elephant pulling a mussel while eating
Elephant mussels only swim around in the water when they are young shells, and once they drill into the mud and sand and have their own caves, they will not come out of it again.
Elephant mussels grow faster in the first 4 years, 1 year of shell length 5-6 cm, weighing 36-40 grams; 2 years of shell length of 8-10 cm, weighing 200-250 grams, at this time the juvenile shell swimming and sand drilling ability is very strong, will actively find suitable habitat. It only takes a few minutes to fully dive into the sand.
3-year shells are 10-12 cm long and weigh 400-500 g; 4 years old shells are 12-15 cm long and weigh 500-800 g. Elephant mussels with shells longer than 15 centimeters basically lose the ability to swim and will no longer move their nests.
The process of divergence and stabilization
The largest elephant mussel shell can grow to more than 20 cm, weighs nearly 4 kg, and the water pipe can extend up to 1.3 meters long, making it the largest buried shellfish.
Because adult shells hide themselves well, elephant mussels live a long lifespan, with the longest-lived individuals recorded living to a hundred years.
Elephant mussels are hermaphroditic, but because they cannot move, the fertilization of the eggs is carried out outside the body. Female shells produce tens of millions of eggs at a time, and male shells excrete sperm. After fertilization, the eggs grow into larvae about 20 days, sink in about 30 days, and grow into juvenile shells of about 5 mm in length at about 70 days. After about 4 years of growth, the elephant mussel matures and begins a new life cycle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > distribution and current status</h1>
The main source of the elephant mussel is in the shallow seas off the coast of the United States and Canada. Originally, the local population did not know how to eat this strange shellfish, but with the increase in demand for mussels in East Asian countries, wild elephant mussel fishing has become more and more common.
If there is no water gun, it will have to be dug up
Elephant mussel fishing is more troublesome, you have to use a high-pressure water gun to wash away the sediment around the mussel to catch the mussel, and because the shell does not have the ability to drill sand and move, once it is caught, it is impossible to put it back.
Elephant mussels are caught with leather bands, graded by size and then sold.
However, the number of wild can not meet the needs of diners in any way, so since 1998, China has begun to cultivate elephant mussels on the beach.
In each tube there are elephant mussels
This method of farming is not bad, but it is very destructive to the ecological environment in the intertidal zone, and many native animals and plants have been greatly affected, including the pillars of the tidal ecosystem: mangroves and children we have seen before 300 million years ago, mudskippers two or three things.
Mangroves and mudskippers
How to strike a balance between gastronomy and eco-environment protection, we will continue to explore.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > and finally the "how to do well" link. </h1>
The main part of the elephant mussel that can be eaten is the thick siphon tube, and the meat is crisp and elastic. You can burn it and remove the skin directly or make sushi.
It can also be incandescent
Or a thick soup
Burst in oil or porridge
You don't have to add a lot of condiments, you can eat the delicious original taste.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Elephant mussels are an interesting creature that we haven't studied enough.
Elephant mussels are delicious, but they must also be enjoyed in a degree, and do not destroy the environment and exterminate species because they satisfy our appetites.
Thank you for watching
source:
Artificial Seedling Technology of Elephant Mussel Pulling
A Model for Sustainable Fisheries: Management of The Elephant Mussel Fisheries in Canada
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