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Cultivation metods
There are several ways of cultivating blue mussels and these methods
vary from country to country. Those methods that we will describe
below are bottom, pole, rope, raft and long line cultivation.
The poles mark areas owned by different mussel farmers
in the
Oosterschelde in the Netherlands.
The development of bottom cultivation of blue mussels has
mainly taken place in the Netherlands where prerequisites such as
long shallow bottoms, protected areas and adequate water exchange
exist. Cultivation is accomplished in such a way that mussel larvae
are caught in rich areas and transplanted in long shallow areas where
cultivation takes place. Work is conducted from flat bottomed boats
that are about 20 metres in length and have moon pools that enable
the dumping of small mussels within cultivation areas. Each of these
boats are crewed by three men. The largest such area in the Netherlands
is known as the Waddenzee, and area protected from the North Sea by
a row of islands. The small mussels are often transported from areas
that are drained under long periods at low tide and therefore grow
slowly. Within cultivation areas, the water is so deep (3 - 10 m)
that even at low tide the mussels remain submerged and are therefore
able to continually take up nutrients from the surrounding water.
Because of the strong currents in these areas, the mussels are usually
full of sand and therefore must be cleaned. Every third year the mussels
are harvested by either scraping or pumping them up from the bottom.
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