The SUBMARINER Network has launched a Mussels Working Group to further research, promote and cooperate across the Baltic mussel production chain. A group of mussel farmers that were involved in the Baltic Blue Growth project have agreed to continue cooperation, to work on joint monitoring standards and to share and publish their data. The Working Group will also continue working on legal issues and potential certification of mussels.

The Interreg BSR newsletter highlights the importance of the Baltic Blue Growth project mentioned by Commissioner Karmenu Vella at the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.

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New results show that mussel farms in the Baltic Sea can make a significant contribution to reducing eutrophication while supporting the circular economy and circular food production. In order to take mussel farming to the next step, further improvements to farm technology are required, larger farms must be implemented, and new knowledge is needed about how harvested mussels can be efficiently reintroduced back into the food system. 

The Baltic Blue Growth project has been featured in a blog post written by PA Nutri (Sanni Turunen, Policy Area Nutri Coordinator). The post elaborates on how the project has implemented several pilot mussel farms in the Baltic Sea and explored under which biological and financial conditions mussel farming is possible. The full post is included below.

In the context of the recently finalised ‘Baltic Blue Growth’ project, a conference was organised on 24 April in Malmö, Sweden, that brought together experts from across the Baltic Sea Region,  including many representatives from Baltic mussels or mussels-related projects. The day was organised around three sessions, focusing on Science and Technology; Business and Finance; and Outreach.

As mussel farmers are an integral part of the Baltic Blue Growth project, the new online section Mussel community will introduce a selection of farmers in more in detail, describing their personal motives for managing a mussel farm. The Baltic Blue Growth mussel farm on Vormsi Island in Estonia is the easternmost farm within the project. It is cultivating mussels in the same area as red algae. 

As mussel farmers are an integral part of the Baltic Blue Growth project, the new online section Mussel community will introduce a selection of farmers and other actors in more detail, describing their motives for becoming involved with a mussel farm. The Baltic Blue Growth mussel farm in Kalmarsund, Sweden enjoys the involvement of the municipality.

As mussel farmers are an integral part of the Baltic Blue Growth project, the section Mussel community introduces a selection of farmers in more in detail, describing their personal motives for managing a mussel farm. The Baltic Blue Growth Sankt Anna mussel farm is the first full-scale mussel farm with a long-line system on the Swedish East Coast.

As mussel farmers are an integral part of the Baltic Blue Growth project, the new online section Mussel community will introduce a selection of farmers in more in detail, describing their personal motives for managing a mussel farm. The Baltic Blue Growth mussel farm in the Kiel Bay is an extension to the existing farm producing mussel for human consumption.

The aim of the conference was to raise awareness on the benefits and opportunities of Baltic mussel production and use, and to discuss a future Baltic mussel farming Working Group that works to maximise these benefits in the Baltic Sea Region.

The German stakeholder meeting was co-organised under the Baltic Blue Growth project and provided a comprehensive overview of the state of affairs within the Baltic Sea mussel farming in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

Three years past its launch, the project Baltic Blue Growth provides impressive findings and innovative offers for the beneift of the next generation of mussel farms in the Baltic Sea. Mussel research plants installed within the frame of BONUS Optimus helped to improve the water salinity indicators. BBG stakeholders will meet in Rostock on 19 March.

Do you want to know where are the best spots for mussel farming in the Baltic Sea? What the environmental impacts of such a farm could be? Look no further, the BBG project has launched its Operational Decision Support System (ODSS) with a “plan your farm” feature.

A transnational workshop took place on the Öland island off the south-east coast of Sweden. 25 experts and practitioners from across the Baltic Sea as well as Canada came together to share experiences and to give advice on the best techniques and how to turn mussel farming into a profitable business.

The Forum was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia together with the Baltic Development Forum in close cooperation with the European Commission, Ministry of Environment and other partners. About 770 participants from governments, international organisations, NGOs, universities, local and regional administrations and businesses came together to discuss developments and challenges in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR).

For two years the mussels have been growing on long-lines placed in the idyllic Sankt Anna archipelago on the Swedish east coast. Some mussels were harvested in December 2017, and now it was finally time to harvest the remaining yield.

In a series of stakeholder meetings in the framework of the Baltic Blue Growth Project Kalmar County Administrative Board organized a meeting to discuss permits and licensing procedures. The goal is to create a digital guide for authorities and future practitioners on the east coast of Sweden.  

To get more of an idea what mussel farming is actually about, watch this video with photage from farms located in the Baltic Proper.

A breakfast seminar on the potential of mussels as a measure to reduce eutrophication received national media attention in Sweden. 

The Baltic Blue Growth establishes fully operational mussel farms to counteract eutrophication and create new blue growth opportunities. Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the project Baltic Blue Growth and mussel farming in the Baltic Sea in general.

The SUBMARINER Network has identified mussel and macroalgae cultivation and harvest as possible routes to realising two of its visions for 2030: marine resources as a part of the Baltic Sea Region sustainable energy and biomass portfolio and maintaining the Baltic Sea Region’s natural capital. Mussel and algae cultivation not only alleviate eutrophication in the Baltic Sea by taking up nutrients, they are also excellent substitutes for human food and animal feed. Around the Baltic Sea, innovative projects are being implemented, where aquatic biomass play an important role in remediating eutrophication – both off and on land.

Farming of blue mussels is a new, exciting solution to an old problem – eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. Mussels filtrate, extract nutrients and improve water quality, which may reduce the frequency of algal blooms. Consequently, mussel farming is being tested as an environmentally responsible tool to reduce Baltic Sea eutrophication. The farmed mussels could potentially be used as a replacement for fish meal or soya meal to feed poultry or farmed fish as well as for bioenergy production. As a response to a new study that suggest that mussels emit substantial quantities of methane, two scientists from the BBG project decided to set the record straight. 

 Thank you to all the members, friends and supporters of the SUBMARINER Network who came to Berlin this week and made a success of the 2nd SUBMARINER Conference Better off Blue. 

The conference will take place in Berlin, Germany on 27–28 September 2017. It will unite actors from the public, private and research domain working towards a blue bioeconomy throughout the Baltic Sea Region to showcase advances, to create synergies and stimulate active cooperation between the multitude of ongoing projects and initiatives in the region.

Watch this underwater footage of how the fundaments and ropes for the submerged Baltic Blue Growth mussel farm are installed. Placed in the open waters outside the Kurzeme coast in Latvia, the farm will have to withstand rapid water circulation and rough weather conditions. Therefore, the farm is submerged to a depth of about five metres.

Register now for the second SUBMARINER conference "Better off Blue" taking place in Berlin, Germany on 27–28 September 2017! The conference aims to unite actors from the public, private and research domain working towards a blue bioeconomy throughout the Baltic Sea Region to showcase advances, to create synergies and stimulate active cooperation between the multitude of ongoing projects and initiatives in the region.

As harvesting time is approaching for some of the six mussel farms participating in the Baltic Blue Growth Project, the partners came together to discuss progress and challenges in Korsør. Around 40 participants took part in the two-day meeting, during which the main talking points were the post-harvest process and how to create an economically sustainable business.

Baltic Blue Growth partners Orbicon and Musholm have published a summary report on the mussel growth in the Baltic Blue Growth project farm in the Danish Musholm Bay during 2016. “Predation by Eider ducks has considerably affected the mussel production at Musholm last year”, says Maren Lyngsgaard, biologist with Orbicon. The total estimated biomass at the Musholm site was only 0.2 – 3.7 tonnes per production unit, whereas up to 20–25 tonnes of mussels per production unit have been recorded at other Danish mussel farms using similar production systems.

Baltic Blue Growth has set up six demonstration mussel farms at different shores of the Baltic Sea to study the preconditions for commercial mussel cultivation at different sites and with different techniques. In each region with a project mussel farm, Baltic Blue Growth partners have now set up regional stakeholder groups, which will meet regularly over the coming years to accompany the mussel farming activities at the given location, discuss advances, challenges and perspectives for its further development.

Watch the launch of the mussel farm in Byxelkrok in the Swedish Kalmarsound in June 2016! The farm is one of six mussel farms that form the basis of the Baltic Blue Growth project. Placed at the northern inlet of the Swedish Kalmarsund, it uses a submerged net-farm production system designed to withstand ice and offshore conditions.

Interreg Baltic Sea Region published an article on legal requirements for mussel farming. In the article, Baltic Blue Growth partner Roland Lemcke from the Ministry of Energy, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas of Schleswig-Holstein (MELUR) explains: “Establishing a new mussel farm requires a lot of different or combined licenses, of course with national features, but substantially based on a common European legal framework. Depending on the relevant national system, three, four or more different authorities are involved in such licensing processes.”

Swedish public service broadcaster SVT reports about the mussel farm in Östergötland's St. Anna archipelago and the mussel farming project Baltic Blue Growth in its regional news for East Sweden. Reporter Christian Zetterdahl joined the project partners during their field trip to one of the six farms that form the basis for the three-year project.

Can mussel farming improve the Baltic Sea's water quality and at the same time create new business models for animal feed production? The project Baltic Blue Growth will try to answer this question by advancing mussel farming in the Baltic Sea from experimental to full scale. It has now officially started with a kick-off meeting in Linköping, Sweden on 21-22 June 2016.