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In the past week the Fisheries Innovation Platform (VIP in Dutch) paid a visit to the mussel processing firm Koninklijke Prins en Dingemanse in Yerseke, a picturesque village where all major players in the mussel world lie amicably side by side on the Korringaweg. This is the beating heart of the Dutch mussel industry; it all happens here. KPD is a well-organized business that supplies mussels to consumers in all shapes and sizes. Vacuum-packed in 2 kg boxes for the supermarket, in jute sacks for the catering industry, in jars or bread-crumbed and deep-frozen; you name it, Prins en Dingemanse makes it. The place is abuzz with enthusiasm and the director and employees all speak about the future of these tiny shellfish with great optimism − which is surprising given the threatening clouds hanging over the mussel industry. But they are anticipating the possible restrictions on traditional mussel harvesting and processing in smart ways.
In 1999, for instance, they already started to develop a mussel seed gathering installation (MZI), which is a floating structure with a net to which the tiny mussels, the seed, can attach themselves. The mussel seed is harvested by scraping off the nets that hang in the sea. This replaces fishing for mussel seed at the bottom of the Waddenzee. There are already some 200 hectares of these MZIs in the Waddenzee, indicating that the sector is well on its way to making itself independent from bottom trawling. A second example of the company’s vision is the plan to cultivate edible mussels on a land-based ‘mussel farm’ with artificial pools. The first Dutch sea farm with a dug-out nursery pool and a production pool for algae will be set up on the industrial estate of Yerseke. The mussels will be fed with self-grown algae and will be ready for eating after two years. The company has also developed ideas to grow mussels with the aid of a floating pontoon on the North Sea. They have already built a prototype the size of a sea container. The idea is to moor this mussel-cultivation pontoon between wind turbine towers in a North Sea wind farm.
These men are passionately looking for ways to innovate mussel cultivation. KPD does not merely package and sell mussels to the consumer market, but is also leading the search for alternative production methods. Rather than passively awaiting the outcome of the discussion about the ecological impact on the Waddenzee, they are already anticipating the threats and opportunities surrounding mussel cultivation. Their energy and positive mind-set make me hopeful that the delicious Zeeland mussel is here to stay.
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