Mussel

THERMAIC GULF - When Anastasios Zakalkas pulled up the ropes of his mussel farm in the Aegean Sea last month, the devastation was clear: the lines were not heaving with molluscs as they should be at harvest time but were instead filled with cracked, empty shells.

A funeral of sorts is taking place at the Kitros Salt Pit in Pieria, northern Greece, as local mussel farmers bury their harvest, lamenting the massive loss of 80% of this year's yield. On this overcast day, the harbor is quiet; instead of collecting mussels, the growers sit in cafes, desolately sipping tsipouro and nibbling on meze.

Off the rocky coast of southeastern Italy, two scuba divers from the financial crimes police bob in and out of the blue waters, under the curious gaze of vacationers.

They're seeking neither buried treasure nor smuggled contraband, but evidence of the hunt for date mussels, a forbidden mollusk turned status symbol whose poaching is indelibly destroying Italy's coastlines.

Mussels will be used in line with a massive cleanup campaign launched by authorities to eliminate the problem of mucilage that has severely threatened the marine biome of the Marmara Sea, a senior official has said.

Fish caught in Turkey's Marmara Sea can be consumed without any doubt unless it's raw, a senior official has said, amid public worry that the fish weren't edible due to marine mucilage, a jelly-like layer of slime that invaded the sea this summer.

While efforts are ongoing in line with a massive cleanup campaign launched by Turkish authorities to pull the Marmara Sea out of the mucilage calamity, residents are hesitant and concerned about consuming seafood coming from the sea.

By order of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forest Desislava Taneva, from today the catch of white sand mussels of the species Donax trunculus and Chamelea gallina in the Bulgarian Black Sea aquatory is forbidden. The ban is introduced for a period of 30 days.

Marine experts have called for urgent action to deal with the dwindling population of the Pinna nobilis, or fan mussel - a large species of Mediterranean clam - in the Aegean due to a killer parasite. 

Zebra mussels, one of the most aggressive freshwater invaders, have been spreading uncontrollably in Turkey for the past 10 years, with experts now warning that the danger is threatening the safety of some cities' water supplies.

As many Greeks give up certain foods - and eat a lot more seafood - in the runup to Easter next month, a study by the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation found that some 80 percent of seafood restaurants in Greece either serve or allow customers to place advance orders for protected species that are considered culinary delicacies, such as date mussels, fan mussels and Triton's trumpet