Badger Bay Mussel Farms, Ltd.

BADGER BAY MUSSEL FARMS , LTD . is considered a world leader in producing environmentally sustainable mussels. It was there that Roberts learned “continuous socking” technology. Badger Bay Mussel Farms was the first to use this sustainable and efficient method in Newfoundland. The mussel farming process is fascinating. As Roberts explains, “We have many seed sites that catch the seed from the wild. The wild mussels on the shore spawn from the middle to end of June, when the tide is right. In early July, we take trolls in a 60 micrometer net. We look under a microscope, and if 60 percent of the larvae are over 250 micrometers, we put our collectors in the water and leave them alone about a foot under water with small buoys attached to the lines.” A collector is a main line with six or eight foot drops of rope hanging down a foot apart from one side to the other (picture a clothesline). The closer to the surface, the more you get. One year later, that seed you caught from the wild is about an inch long. Roberts adds, “We have aluminum barges with hydraulics and all the works – and we go out and use machinery to strip that seed. It goes up a conveyor onto the barge and into a container where we ‘decloak’ it so it’s loose. We have a sorter that sizes the grades between quarter, three-eights, and half inch, then we ‘sock’ those mussels to a different site. Basically, on the main line there are drops of rope, every 18 inches and 40 feet deep, in one continuous piece. It’s all computerized and automated. Mussels are wrapped on the outside of the rope (about 225 mussels per foot) and there is 100-percent virgin cotton on the outside of that.” The advantages of this system are impressive. When you harvest, there is no monofilament to go in the landfill, nothing goes in the water, and everything is reusable and biodegradable. Using the continuous line technology is very efficient, easier on the crew, and environmental-friendly. Employing it helped Badger Bay obtain organic certification, and also makes deployment of the