Newsletter #4

The Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia held its annual meeting and aquaculture conference last weekend (Jan. 26 and 27^th) in Halifax and in my opinion it was a great success. The keynote speaker was Aaron Pannell of the Marlborough Mussel Co. of New Zealand. He spoke of how the New Zealand mussel industry, almost totally dependant on export markets, while being decidedly competitive, also cooperates through the New Zealand Mussel Industry Council (recently renamed) to develop new markets and quality standards and to work together on food safety and other issues. The result is a mature industry that grows a great product with a great reputation. While Aaron was here, Bruce Hancock of Country Harbour Sea Farms and I took Aaron up the Eastern Shore to Aquaprime Mussel Ranch the day before the conference and then to Indian Point on the day after. It was a pleasure for me as the Marlborough Mussel Co. had hosted us on our visit to New Zealand ten years ago. That visit resulted in us changing our mussel growing methods to the much more efficient New Zealand continuous rope method which we still use today. Their industry continues to be the standard, which other mussel growers strive to attain.

On the farm, it has been a rough winter as we have been suffering continuing predation by our winter resident population of white winged scoters. We have a flock of approximately 100 birds that are eating our mussels all day every day and we are quite helpless in knowing what to do about it. I include a quote from the Birds of Nova Scotia by RobieTufts: “Kortright (1942) states that the grinding power of its (white winged scoter) gizzard is almost unbelievable. Oysters and other molluscs are swallowed whole and many shells that would require a hard blow of a hammer to break are readily ground and chemically disintegrated in its gizzard. The gullet of one bird, collected over an oyster bed, contained no less that 10 oysters, one measuring over 5 cm. in length. The remains of 46 oysters were found in the gizzard of another.”

Another quote from a scientific paper on “Diving Duck Predation at Mussel Farms” from Scotland quotes Galbraith (1987) saying, “that one eider could remove 2.6kg. (wet weight) of mussels per day from a farms ropes. This figure however may not reflect the actual intake of mussels by each bird, as an unknown percentage of the mussels taken from the ropes may drop off or be shaken off as the eider feeds.” While the preceding quote refers to eider ducks, which we don’t have yet, I expect the numbers are somewhat similar for scoters. Over the past month we have seen our lines, which we sink in December to avoid ice, coming back to the surface as they become lighter due to duck predation. While I am an avid bird feeder in my back yard, and I rejoice to see the 100 or more mallards that spend the winter across the road in our cove, I am afraid that I can’t say that I am glad that the scoters are so numerous. Also this year they have upped the ante by attacking our one year old mussels as well as our new spat. Once again I’m left wondering about our place in the marine ecology. Any suggestions on dealing with this problem would be greatly appreciated.

As announced recently on CBC Radio’s Information Morning, Mahone Bay will be holding its first Mussel Festival this May. A result of informal conversations between ourselves, Brian Kienapple of the Nova Scotia Slow Food Group and Dawn and Alden of the Biscuit Eater Café in Mahone Bay, the festival is still in its initial planning stages and is currently dateless but I will pass on information as it becomes available. This spring also marks our 25^th anniversary of being in business. It has been a continuing frustration that at the time our mussels are in their very best condition (April and May) we find sales to be quite slow. Also the town of Mahone Bay is looking for an opportunity to kick off the tourist season in May, and to reverse the recent trend of the tourist season starting a little later each year. While May weather can be iffy, it can also be spectacular and if it is rainy and cold we will just have to sit in one of Mahone Bay’s great restaurants and eat mussels and drink local wines and beers.

We always try to find a project to keep the guys busy on the winter days that are not fit to be out on the water. While we always have ongoing maintenance to keep up with, this year we have a carpentry project in the shop that will result in a store front from which we will sell our mussels to local customers. While we have always sold to people who came by, it has not been convenient either for them or for us but come spring we will have this problem corrected. Like most farmers, we are realizing the importance of getting as close to the end user of our mussels as possible. It will be the one place that mussel lovers can be ensured that the product is absolutely fresh.

Until next time, all the best: Peter