SCARBOROUGH — Maine mussels are losing their muscle.

The state’s blue mussels are loved by seafood fans, but the size of the annual harvest has dipped in recent years, bottoming out at a 40-year low in 2016. Harvesters collected less than 1.8 million pounds of mussel meat in 2016, the lowest total since 1976.

The state’s mussel harvesters exceeded 6 million pounds three times in the 1980s and 1990s, and routinely topped 3 million pounds until 10 years ago.

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