NORTH MENAI STRAIT MUSSEL

The blue or common mussel (Mytilus edulis) is ubiquitous around the UK. Mussels are filter feeders, feeding on phytoplankton and suspended organic matter in the water column. This reliance on a natural food source, coupled with their general sessile (fixed) nature, makes them ideal for cultivation.

Vessels from the Bangor Mussel Producers Association dredge young ‘seed’ mussels from ephemeral beds (where the mussels are not attached to rocks but loose in the mud) in the Irish Sea under a special license from the North Western and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee. They then re-lay the seed mussels on sheltered beds in the Menai Strait to produce more successful harvests, a process known as ‘catch and grow’. Once re-laid, the mussels grow for 18-24 months before being harvested. 

Harvested mussels are mainly exported to markets in Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

In 2009, the North Menai Strait mussel fishery was the first fishery to enter assessment against the MSC Fisheries Standard under new guidelines for assessing enhanced fisheries.

So-called ‘enhanced fisheries’ are wild-caught fisheries that involve some degree of aquaculture, falling somewhere between purely wild-caught and purely farm-raised. The MSC’s policy on enhanced fisheries was finalized in July 2009 and includes three categories — catch and grow fisheries, like this one, hatch and catch fisheries and habitat-modified fisheries. You can find more information on the eligibility of different fisheries here.