Successful long distance road transport of green mussel from Calicut to port Okha.

Abstract

The seeds of green mussel were collected from coastal areas at Elathur (north of Calicut) in the morning hours of 26-11-'83, and after cleaning them thoroughly with sea water, without any prior conditioning, were kept in HDPE tanks of about 300-400 litre capacity. A total of 9,000 seeds were thus collected and transported to Port Okha, The journey started from Calicut on 26-ll-'83 at 1000 hrs and ended at Port Okha on l-12-'83 at 0230 hrs covering a linear distance of 2,300 km. The average size was 24.4 mm in length, 4.6 g in wet weight, 12.8 mm in width and 7.7 mm in breadth, and the transport used was a closed body insulated 10 tonner truck. Water was not changed during the entire journey period from Calicut to Okha. The experience gained in the process of transportation can go a long way in mass transplantation of mussel seeds or allied fish/shellfish seeds in the future.