The usual cockle is typically 60 – 70 mm in size. It lives buried a few inches down in the seabed on shallow water. The shells have characteristic ribs and the color is typically white or yellow. The cockle lives by filtering plankton from the sea water. Like most other mussels, the cockle has two respiratory tracts for incoming and outflowing water respectively. The cockle is 2-3 years old. There may be as many as 5,000 mussels per m2 seabed. The mussels are an important food item for wading birds that can smash the shells with their long and strong beak.
Did you know that:
The cockle is also called “heart mussel” even though it does not resemble a heart at first sight. But try to put two half shells together and see the entire mussel from the side, so you know why it’s called a “heart mussel”.
