This is SeaTalk: Ocean News from the University of Delaware.

You won’t find Atlantic ribbed mussels on many restaurant menus. Though this native creature is edible, it’s larger and tougher than its more delicious cousin, the blue mussel. Atlantic ribbed mussels, which are named for their corduroy-like shells, play an important role in the marsh ecosystem, where they can be found among grasses protruding from the mud. When the water level rises with the tide, they open their shells slightly and draw in water, which they filter for food such as algae. This filtering action does a great service for places like Delaware’s Inland Bays because it helps clarify and clean the water. In fact, a large group of ribbed mussels can filter and re-filter the entire volume of water entering a marsh during each tidal cycle! This is SeaTalk, a public service announcement from the University of Delaware, the Delaware Sea Grant College Program, and this station.