1.
Opportunities and Challenges for Expanding
Mussel Aquaculture in New England
Baird Symposium‐November 14, 2013

2.
Today’s Presentation
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•
•
•
•
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Motivation
Methods
History and Current Status
Challenges
Reasons to be Optimistic
Reasons to not be….
Future?

3.
Primary Motivation: US Consumption
and Production
• US production
 Average 2005‐2012 $4 M; 4.5 M lbs
• Imports
$100 M (all products)
$40 M ( fresh/live)

4.
Bottom culture

5.
Rope Cultured Mussels

6.
MUSSEL CULTURE BASICS
• Seed Collection/production
Wild caught
Hatchery
• Nursery Culture
On seed lines; 4-6 months
• Growout
Suspension of mesh “socks” or growing rope

7.
NZ style
Spanish style

8.
Surface Referenced Longlines-PEI

9.
Open Ocean‐ US EEZ

10.
Submerged Longline

11.
Finite Element Modeling

12.
Mussel Farming Around New England
14 Lease Holders
2 BC
9 Raft
2 LL

13.
UNH Offshore
Aquaculture
Facility
10 km from shore
52 m deep
Current velocities 20 ‐> 150 cm/s
Significant wave heights > 10 m

14.
12 Longlines
180,000 lb Capacity

15.
25 Acres
15 acres
5 Longlines
10 acres

16.
2 lines (5)

17.
?

18.
We Have the Technology

19.
Favorable Production Cycle
80
70
60
Shell
Height
(mm)
Jun-99
50
Oct-99
Jun-00
40
Dec-00
Dec-01
30
Dec-02
May-03
20
June-04
10
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Months Post Deployment
16
18

20.
We Can Produce a Superior Product

21.
Favorable Economic Outlook
$3 M
$2 M
$900 K
20%

22.
We Can Create Jobs

23.
We Can Learn from Others

24.
Key component of Integrated Multitrophic
Aquaculture (IMTA)

25.
We Can Join Forces

26.
Thank You!
Questions?