Rock Scallops

Humans eat the large muscle of this scallop, called the adductor muscle, which is what the animal uses to open and close its shell. Native Americans have used rock scallops for food and their shells as pendants, lip plugs, and nose rings. They’ve also used the shells in facial and mask paint, and the scallops were used in totem pole and canoe designs. Due to the large size of its meat and excellent taste, there is much research and interest in creating a commercial aquaculture fishery for these scallops.
These members of the marine food web are eaten by sea otters, sea stars (including ochre stars, giant pink sea stars, and rainbow stars), California spiny lobsters, and fish such as striped surfperch, painted greenlings, blackeye gobies and senoritas.
Other organisms will live on the shells of rock scallops, including barnacles, anemones, boring sponges, tube worms, bryozoans, and coralline algae. In addition, pea crabs will sometimes live inside the mantle cavity of the rock scallop.