Indian Point Mussels are grown on ropes suspended from long-lines that are anchored in position on one of our seven mussel leases located in Mahone Bay.

The baby mussels known as spat are bound to the grow-out rope by cotton mesh socks, which biodegrade away within one to two months. This process first occurs in November when the spat has reached up to one half inch in length. The spat is purchased from spat growers who hang lengths of rope in the upper part of the water column in late spring and summer for the mussel spat to settle on. Mahone Bay, because of its depth and currents is not a very good place to collect mussel spat so we depend on spat suppliers from other areas.

By using a machine purchased in New Zealand, we have become very efficient at “seeding” or deploying the mussel laden ropes onto our leases and can hang out several kilometers in an afternoon.

Our mussels take almost 24 months to reach market size. During that time, we must keep the mussels suspended off the bottom or else they will be quickly eaten by starfish. However, we must also sink the mussels below the surface in the winter to keep moving ice from destroying the long lines.

Finally, when they are large enough, we start to harvest that year- class or cohort. We try to plan our harvesting over the next year so that cohort will provide a continuous supply for our markets until the following year when the next year class is ready. As a result, there is a short period of time in the spring when we have three cohorts growing on our leases.

As required, we harvest the ropes using a hydraulically powered hauler which pulls the mussel laden ropes through a scraper, after which the mussels slide into our insulated boxes which we quickly take to our plant in Indian Point, just ten to fifteen minutes from the grow-out leases.