Self-organization and mechanical properties of mussel culture suspensions: A critical review

Published information on the spatial organization of mussel culture suspensions (collectors, socks, droppers and poles) is reviewed. Despite the several hundred studies on mussel culture this type of information is very scarce but suggests that mussels self-organize into phyllotatic patterns similar to those widely studied in cylindrical/ tubular biological structures and mineral crystals. I demonstrate that space regulated self-thinning (SST) models developed for plane substrates are not applicable to mussel suspensions and propose a new SST model based on the packing geometry of mussel shells around a rope. The robustness of this model is assessed by its application to a wide range of cultured populations. This comparison suggests that the carrying capacity of individual suspensions for commercial-sized mussels is equivalent to a single layer of tightly packed mussels around the rope, independently of the species, type of suspension, presence/absence of pegs, site (growth rate) and stocking density and size. The emergent mechanical properties of these porous, extremely rough and heterogeneous bodies are reviewed. The proposed SST model provides insights into the biomechanical processes of self-thinning and sloughing.