Mussel harvesting: yesterday and today

 

 

 

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Fishing and mussel-harvesting are among the oldest human activities.

As a matter of fact mussel shells are often found as part of scrapers and projectile points in paleontologic finds.

 

The first experience of mussel-farming is dated 1236 when an Irishmen named Patrick Walton found himself ship wrecked on a desolate stretch of French coastline. Hoping to snag a few sea birds he rigged a net between several stakes driven into the sand just off shore. He didn't catch many birds but a few days later he pulled up the stakes and found lots of mussels.

He soon realised that the molluscs would gain a better taste and reach a bigger size if they where grown suspended into the water. The Irishmen started to cultivate mussels using upright wooden poles (“bouchots”) on lower shore, a method practised to this day.

 

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In Italy, mussel-farming has been practised in lagoons and in delta areas cultivating bivalves on ropes suspended into the water.

Young growing mussels, were collected and seeded on natural fibre ropes made of Lygeum spartum  leafs.

The limited rope’s resistance to cutting, which could turn into loss of products, required a constant maintenance and cleaning of the structures in order to avoid their burdening.

With the introduction of synthetic material, more resistance ropes started to be used.

 

Since 1986 mussel farms have been also established in open sea along the Adriatic coastline, where mussels are grown on ropes suspended either from rafts or longlines.

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In Italy, the mussel cultivation is the more common sea-farming activity due to its good economical return considering the low set up and  production costs.

Mussels do not need extra-feeding; in fact they are filter feeders and they remove plankton and other nutrients directly from the water and convert them into their flesh.

The human effort consists, through seed mussels, of  maximising and stabilising the production.

 

In the Venetian lagoon, mussels are farmed on ropes suspended from poles set into the lagoon bottom. The farms are scattered mainly near Malamocco and Chioggia and on the edge of channels where the lagoon depth is around 5 meter.

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