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¹ Ege University, Fisheries Faculty, Department of Aquaculture, 35100 Izmir, Turkey
² Ege University, Fisheries Faculty, Department of Fisheries and Processing Technology, 35100 Izmir, Turkey
³ Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Gokceada School of Applied Sciences, Gökçeada, Çanakkale, Turkey
⁴ Centre IFREMER, Rue de l’Ile d’Yeu, BP 21105, 44311 Nantes Cedex 03, France DOI : 10.4194/trjfas.2010.0413 Viewed : 4302 - Downloaded : 7720 Considering the filtration capacity of mussels to qualitative particle selection, our study focused directly on ingested species by assessing mussel stomach content of various size classes (1-5 cm) over a year (August 97-June 98) rather than monitoring seawater samples. Different size of mussels (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cm in length) was sampled monthly from the sides of fish cage floats in Urla-Izmir. Stomach contents were analyzed under microscope and different plankton species were grouped taxonomically. Bacillariophycea, Dinophyceae, Oxyphceae, Euglenophyceae as phytoplanktonic species were observed in the stomach contents of mussels as well as zooplanktonic species including Ciliata, Cladocera, Copepod, bivalve and gastropod larvae. Over the sampling period, according to the Bray-Curtis similarity test mussels’ stomach for all sizes was of similar content except in August and October. Keywords : Mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, harmful, phytoplankton, stomach content, Aegean Sea