Recently, the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Fisheries Department and the Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority to file a detailed report on the removal of invasive mussel species Mytella strigata from Ennore-Pulicat wetland.
About Mytella strigata :
It is a moderately large and symmetrical shelled mussel.
It is generally observed in the middle intertidal and subtidal waters of estuaries and near coastal environments.
These mussels attach themselves to surfaces using byssus threads.
Appearance:
Individual mussels have a diversity of external colour schemes from black, dark bluish, brown, grey, orange and (rarely) green
The species can also have a range of external shell patterns from zig zags, spots or concentric bands.
It can form dense clusters that colonise hard substrates or occupy epibenthic habitats, including other mussel species.
It is usually present on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of tropical South and Central America.
It has spread to Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, the Gulf of Thailand, west coast of India and the south-eastern United States.
Threats: These mussels spread like a carpet over the river bottoms and thus preventing prawns from grazing or burying themselves in the sediment.
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