Mussel Aquaculture For Making Profit

Mussel farming on commercial scale is being practise in many countries of the world. In some countries, mussel aquaculture is best done on natural beds from seeding and that makes it easy for transporting.

They have a great potential in profit making and are a great food resource.

Mussels are farmed both in the open sea and in lagoons. Mussels can be collected when the product has reached the minimum commercial size of 5 cm, but products with a length of more than 10 cm are frequently found.

If they are grown in lagoons, the mussels are required to undergo a depuration process before being sold for consumption.

Mussel Diet In The Wild And In Farming

Mussels feed on phytoplankton and organic matter by constantly filtering seawater. As they feed on the organics in the water, they also clean the water in the process.

Deep Water Culturing For Mussel

There are four distinct methods used throughout the world for farming mussels. Each method is adapted to suit particular coastal environments.

 Bottom Culture – they may be grown on protected areas of the seabed whereby the rocks and boulders based on mid tide to low tide marks.

The beds are exposed at low tides and making them to be heavily exploited by fishermen and local villagers who poach mussels very often.

 Pole or Bolichot Culture – on wooden poles sunk into the sea shore.

 Raft Culture – on ropes suspended either from floating rafts. Fabrication of these rafts is done on the shore near the aquaculture site and raft is serviced after 4 – 6 months.

 Longline Culture – requires ropes for mainlines and collectors; mussel socking for seeds in socks; floats to support collectors and anchoring system to anchor farm in place.

Differentiating Farmed AND Wild Mussels

Farmed mussels have clean, thin shells and are generally free from grit, sand and pearls. They may be selectively harvested when meat yields are high.

.These features combine to make the farmed mussel an attractive and superior product when compared with wild or bottom cultured mussel.

Wild mussels are much meatier than farmed mussels and are enormous in size (6 inches or 30.5 cm long) covered by urchins, starfish, and slimy wriggling things of the deep.

be sure not to harvest when there isn’t ‘R’ in the month because the poor conditions of spawning which could harbour toxins as they do better in warmer conditions.

Selection Of Culture Site

The site of mussel cultivation should be well protected or sheltered coves and bays rather than open unprotected areas where anyone can poach mussels. Sites usually affected by strong winds and big waves must be avoided as they damage slacks and culture materials.

Production Cycle

The mussel species production varies and firstly, the spat is obtained by collectors in the ocean prior to spawning and once the spat has settled, they grow to a minimum of 10 mm.

They are stripped from the collector to be placed in socks; the sock filled with the spat must be able to migrate through the mesh for attachment and subsequent growth.

The young mussel s re-attaches by means of their byssal threads to the outside surface of the socking material. Experience indicates that the optimal density for filling socks within the range 800 – 1000 spat per meter.

The production cycle to a minimum market size of 50 mm shell length ranges from approximately.

Production System And Harvesting

Two production systems are used: Seed mussels are dredged from wild mussel beds and then relayed to culture plots to grow and spat/seed collectors are used as artificial settlement substrates for larval mussels which are then also relayed to culture plots.

Harvesting is difficult and hard considering that the mussel sock at harvest can weigh 10 kg or more per metre when lifted and they are harvested by using dredges. The mussel harvesting activity is capital intensive, highly mechanized and almost entirely performed by companies.

Brief Details Of Rope Culture For GREEN Mussels

 Time taken for commercial production is 5 months.
 The average marketable size is 62mm with an average weight of 24 grams with shell or 12 grams of meat.
 3 metres long ropes per raft yield about 40 – 60 mussels with an average production per rope of 18 kg of mussels or 9 kg meat over a period of 5 months.
 Annual production of 3 harvests per rope is 46 kg mussels or 23 kg of meat.

Marketing

Distinguishing mussels for consumers when marketing is done through coding; live, fresh or chilled (code of 2012); smoked mussels whether in shell or not, whether or not cooked before or during the smoking process, not otherwise prepared. Other prepared and preserved mussels are identified under two codes (coded between 2012 and 2016)

The mussels are prepared or preserved in airtight containers as frozen, dried, salted or in brine, even in shell and this promotes their life.

Mussel selling can be expensive because of transport and the volume is small. How To Raise Mussels Moreover, most of the volume is sold in supermarkets with annual production of mussels of the order of 23 kg mussel meat per rope or approximately 1,150 kg of mussel meat per raft.

The price paid to mussel producers is mainly driven by the market conditions.

CONSTRAINTS AT MARKET LEVEL
 Low prices for import can be a threat to local production.
 Transport and logistics are expensive because of trying to keep up with the demands.
 Consumer reluctance to eat mussels (molluscs).