Farms of the future: mussel farming given a new lifeline – Positive News
The people behind the UK’s first fully offshore mussel farm want to encourage Brits to eat more shellfish, which they say is currently untapped food resource
When the UK’s first fully offshore mussel farm reaches full capacity, it will exceed the yield of Scotland’s entire mussel industry. The farm, which is three miles off the south Devon coast, will triple in size over the next two years. When complete, it will cover 15sq km with 900 lines of rope anchored to depths of up to 30m, producing more than 10,000 tonnes annually.
Mussels naturally settle on longlines, feed on plankton and act as a carbon sink. “Mussels are one of the best ways to sequester carbon, which gets locked into their shells forever,” explains Nicki Holmyard, co-founder of Offshore Shellfish. She believes they’re a currently untapped food resource – rich in omega-3 and, she claims, farming offshore results in a higher meat content.
The team at Offshore Shellfish put out special lines to collect juvenile mussels, known as ‘spats’. The lines are thinned out onto suspended ropes so the mussels grow at the right density and don’t compete for food. They can be harvested within a year.
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