Does anyone eat river mussels in your hometown? In the village where the author lives, few people pick up mussels to eat. There were so many mussels at that time that many adults used them to feed pigs, chickens and ducks. This also made me think that river mussels were inedible for a long time.

I still remember that a few decades ago, in winter, the village would drain the water in the fish ponds to catch fish. When the water was drained, a lot of fish would be found in the mud and silt. River mussels, and each has its own extra-large size.

But the author has not seen wild river mussels in my hometown for several years. Even though the ponds are still drained every year to catch fish, there are very few river mussels. If you are lucky, you will find a few in the mud, and they are generally not as big as before.

Can those fishy and dirty river clams really be eaten? Why are river clams so rare now? Let’s find out together!

(1) Are river clams really inedible?

Of course, river mussels are edible. They are one of the classic river seafoods. Their taste is not inferior to that of seafood, but the prerequisite is that they are not polluted and are fresh. If the mussels are grown in polluted water sources or are dead and stale, they cannot be eaten. They will breed a large number of parasites and are not good for the body.

As for some people saying that river clams have no meat, this is indeed true. A large river mussel may weigh several kilograms, but there is only very little meat inside. Often a dozen kilograms of river mussels will be cleaned out without even a kilogram of meat. In this case, even a large bucket of river mussels will not be enough for the whole family to eat after being processed.

More oil and various seasonings must be added to cook mussels, otherwise they will not taste good. In the past, living conditions were not good, and people were reluctant to add oil and there were no seasonings, so they were reluctant to do so. The mussels made this way would definitely not taste good. In addition, there were a lot of river seafood in the past, and various river seafood were easier to handle and more delicious than mussels, so few people ate river mussels.

(2) Why are river mussels so rare now?

The first is that the environment has changed. As the name suggests, river mussels like to live in watery environments such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds, and they have relatively high requirements for water quality. However, in recent years, with the development of industry, a lot of wastewater and waste residues have been discharged into rivers and lakes, causing great damage to water quality. Not only are there fewer river mussels, but many small miscellaneous fish are also rare.