The fan mussel, also known as noble pen shell, is the largest clam of the Adriatic as well as the Mediterranean. The average size is 60 centimetres but it can grow up to 1.5 metres in height. It prefers soft, silt bottom with a sea level between 0.5 and 10 metres.
The relocation of fan mussels in Slovenia is unique to the Mediterranean, since the first re-planting of shell, from which seas silk was made until not so long ago, took place in the Bay of Piran.

"We pick up ten of them from every square metre. Especially toward the end of the pier, where it's most popular to jump into the water, mussels would be dangerous to come across, since there are so many of them," explains diver Sašo Moškon.

"Fan mussels will be relocated from the beach to a place across the net that marks the end of the swimming area. This means a little less than a hundred metres further toward the middle of the Piran Bay," notes the director of the Okolje Piran public services Alen Radojkovič.

At the brink of extinction
The fan-shaped mussel provides home to numerous sea organisms and represents an important part of the sea ecosystem. It used to be at the brink of extinction, also due to pollution.

T. H., Nataša Mihelič/TV Slovenija; translated by K. Z.