Mytilus edulis are wildly distributed along costal areas of the Atlantic, North America, Europe, and northern Palearctic, with temperature in these regions ranging from 5-20^oC. Commonly found in intertidal zones can withstand depths of 5-10 meters.  Mussels are bivalves consisting of two shells usually brown, purple, or blue in color. They bread by spawning releasing the gametes into the water, females can release between 5-8 million eggs. Usually development takes a month but may be delayed and take up to 6 months. They often feed on phytoplankton, diatoms, and dinoflagellates by filter feeding.

 Ecologically they are able to remove a large amount of settlement from the water and provide a habitat and substrate attachment for algal species. They are also important in the food change being grazed on by starfish and snails (Zagata et al 2008).

Bibliography

Zagata, C., C. Young, J. Sountis, M. Kuehl and D. Howe. 2008.                           "Mytilusedulis"   (On-line),

Animal Diversity Web. Accessed December 11, 2008 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu

/site/accounts/information/Mytilus_edulis.html.