ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some ways humans interact with molluscs, both directly and indirectly. Ancient peoples primarily collected molluscs for food. A great variety of molluscs were, and are, collected for food from wild populations, including scallops, oysters, cockles, abalone, trochus, whelks, winkles, limpets, chitons, squid, cuttlefish, and octopus. Farming aquatic molluscs is responsible for the production of a very significant proportion of molluscs utilised for food and also for pearls and pearl shell. The shells of many molluscs are used for ornaments, in decoration, and as jewellery. A few molluscs are poisonous or venomous to humans. Venom can be administered directly by way of a bite or ‘sting’, or poisons are ingested when molluscs are eaten. An important negative human impact of a few molluscs is through their roles as disease carriers. While marine molluscs are often common and widespread, some are potentially vulnerable through harvesting as human food items.
