Maine's mussel industry matures
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
PORTLAND — Maine's mussel farming industry has been around for a quarter-century, but it's just now maturing to a point at which it can expand production and meet growing consumer demand.
A strong mussel-aquaculture industry represents good news to Maine's waterfront communities because it could offset job losses in commercial fishing and other aquaculture businesses.
Commercial fishing has been hit by government restrictions and quotas imposed to rebuild fish stocks, and the salmon aquaculture industry has been buffeted by the effects of salmon illnesses and new environmental rules.
Well-established in other countries, mussel farming has been around in Maine for only a generation. But it is now expanding to enough sites and being marketed with sufficient effort to bring it to a new level.
"The market is phenomenal," said Evan Young of Trenton, who owns two mussel-raising rafts. "We have no problem getting rid of the mussels. The industry's potential really depends on public acceptance."
By later this year, 10 rafts scattered across midcoastal and Down East Maine will be producing shellfish for Great Eastern Mussel Farms of Tenants Harbor, the country's largest mussel producer.
Great Eastern has $1.5 million in loans, government grants and equity tied up in the venture, with a goal of producing 500,000 to 1 million pounds of mussels a year.
Once they are grown, mussels are cleaned, sorted, bagged and distributed, then sold at fancy restaurants and seafood stores around the country. Great Eastern's 50 employees processed 6 million pounds last year.
A key to Great Eastern's plan is a harvesting barge that is used as a mobile processing plant.
Great Eastern President Chip Davison said that during the next year or so, industry investors will know whether mussel raft aquaculture can evolve into a larger industry in Maine.
"The bottom line," Davison said, "is that 10 rafts should make a profit for us. The fishermen have to be profitable and we have to be profitable. If it works, this is a nice way to go in the future."
Consumption of blue mussels, which are plentiful along the Atlantic coast, has doubled since 1998 and is said to be growing at roughly 25 percent a year.
But mussel farmers face several challenges, including finding locations for rafts that are sheltered from storms but have the right currents and plankton flows to maximize production.
They must also find locations where they aren't in the way of boats and other fishermen. Great Eastern competes with growers in Canada's Prince Edward Island.