South Island Mussels. Are they really?
Have you bought green lipped mussels in your local supermarket and they are from Marlborough Sounds? Yes they were grown there but their life started in the ocean off Ninety Mile Beach in the far north of New Zealand.
The Mussel spat pickers harvest there quota from the sea off Ninety Mile Beach. The lose seaweed that washes in after a storm. The tractors and trucks and trailers come out in masse. No fear of the sea these harvesters drive their tractor units with the mesh basket on the front harvesting the spat.
This is stored in the far north in controlled conditions before being freighted to the South Island.
The next part of the process I cannot remember exactly but the weed with spat is put into pools and as the seaweed deteriorates the spat then attaches itself to the ropes you see at Mussel farms eventually being put at the farms to grow to maturity. As the Mussels grow more buoys are added to the main line to stop the weight of the mussels from pulling everything below surface.
If you are a fisherman you will know there is often great fishing in and around the mussel farm. Especially when the barges are harvesting the mussels.
Today the boys were out in force collecting the spat as we arrived at the bluff on Ninety Mile Beach. Not a spectacular days fishing but what a superb day to be standing on the rocks with rod hand. Middle of July, how could we complain
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