Prince Edward Island

Sustainable Seafood –Growing Mussels

Prince Edward Island (abbreviated P.E.I.) is known to seafood lovers for locally ‘produced’ sweet and tender mussels. P.E.I. mussels are small, but they have a plump morsel of meat inside. You can cook them in a variety of ways, in white wine or your favorite sauces. But here we are not talking about cooking Prince Edward Island mussels, but growing them. If you are interested in mussel farming, you have come to the right place!

Catching the Mussel Larvae
Step one is catching mussel larvae. This will happen in late spring when water temperatures rise as this is when the larvae spawn. You can catch them by attaching ropes to buoys and leaving them afloat. The mussels will settle down on the top of the rope.

‘Socking’ the Mussels
When fall arrives, you have to ‘sock’ the mussels, which by now have grown about half an inch. The mussels are collected and placed in long mesh tubes that resemble socks. Sort them in similar sizes before stuffing them to maintain a similar shell size. Remember that the mussels will continue to grow inside the tubes and will eventually ‘move out’ for search for nutrients.

Harvesting the Mussels
Mussels will be harvested about 2 years later. By this time the mussels are at their peak. Note that since the mussels are primarily growing on the rope instead of the ocean bottom, they are very clean. And their robustness is further maintained by the pure waters of Prince Edward Islands. Mussels now become even sweeter as winters approach. Commercial mussel harvesters either use deep, open waters for growing mussels, or they hire divers for ‘ice-harvesting’ in winters.

‘Debearding’ the Mussels
Finally, the harvested mussels have to be washed, graded and debearded. But all this has to been done gently. If the beards are pulled out roughly, it can damage the shelf life of the mussels. Commercial harvesters use special processing equipment to conduct this process with the utmost care.

Remember that the mussels have to ‘recuperate’ from the harvesting process. Facilitate them by placing the mussels in storage tanks that hold salt water. You also need to bubble air through them. That, my friends, is how you grow P.E.I. mussels.

Fatima M.
Freelance Blogger