Mussel Farming in Rough Waters with Vidir Bjornsson of Iceland

Icelandic mussel farmer Vidir Bjornsson will speak about his experiences establishing an aquaculture project in the rough waters of the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 5:30. The talk is sponsored by the Menemsha Fisheries Development Fund, which has a pilot mussel farming project underway in Vineyard Waters.

Before he began mussel aquaculture in 2000, Bjornsson was a commercial fisherman in Iceland for 20 years, using every type of gear allowed  in Icelandic waters including purse seines, gillnets, longlines, trawlers and hook and line. He will talk about how he went from a trial and error project funded by the family “milk money” to a company that last year exported more than 80 tons of live mussels.

Bjornsson now has 170 seed lines and 42 grow out lines in the water and hopes to increase production to 300 tons this year with a staff of up to 15 people. He will talk about the problems encountered along the way as he introduced the Canadian method of growing mussels on submerged lines after several failed attempts at the preferred European surface growing method. He battled bad weather, eider ducks, starfish and pea crabs before he found the right combination of gear and method that resulted in a financially successful venture.

Warren Doty, president of the Memensha Fisheries Development Fund, says he hopes commercial fishermen and others around the island interested in expanding their enterprises to aquaculture will attend the presentation. The program is also sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library.

Admission is free.