Shellfish Farming Method

Shellfish Farming Method

Our shellfish farming method is a bit different from traditional methods. We don't use cages. Instead, our mussels are grown to market size directly on ropes suspended in the water column.

The method we use is based on a system that was developed more than 30 years ago in Denmark and has been refined over the years. It's widely used in Europe and New Zealand, as well as British Columbia and Maine.

Instead of cages, we suspend ropes from long lines secured between floating PVC buoys at either end. Our mussels hang from the ropes until they reach market size.

We can grow more mussels per acre using this method than traditional farming methods because the mussels have more space to grow and spread out, maximizing our farm's carrying capacity.

And because there are no cages or trays to clean or maintain, our costs are lower and we can pass those savings along to you!

This course is designed to help you understand the process of shellfish farming. The first step in this process is exposing oyster larvae to fertilized eggs in a tank. The next step is placing the resulting oyster spat in mesh sacks and allowing them to grow in a sheltered area of the ocean.  After a period of several months, the oysters are removed from the sacks and placed directly on the ocean floor. This method of shellfish farming has many advantages over traditional methods and can produce large quantities of oysters in a relatively short period of time.

A lot of the food we eat today is grown by farmers who use methods that are thousands of years old. However, in recent decades, some farmers have started using new methods that allow them to grow crops and raise livestock more efficiently. This new way of farming is called "agriculture technology" or abbreviated as "agritech".