ABSTRACT
Mussel seeds of 15 – 25 mm size collected from intertidal and sub-tidal beds are attached to coir or nylon ropes of 1–6 m length and enveloped by netting. Cultured mussel production has increased from 20 tonnes in 1996 to above 101000 tonnes in 2008, mainly through the raft culture system in estuarine area. he farming practice of bivalve molluscs is either on bottom or off bottom culture methods. The bottom culture system is also called the broadcast technique. In France, mussel culture is believed to have started in 1235, when an Irish sailor Patrick Walton survived a shipwreck on the Bay of Aiguillon. He found that the wooden poles and nets that he had kept for trapping birds attracted mussel spat settlement. In Thailand and Philippines, mussels are grown on bamboo poles staked at half meter depth and one meter apart or in circle and tied at the top to form a wigwam structure in soft, muddy bottoms.
