£4.4 million boost to mussel farming "shell-volution"

The funding comes as part of the Government’s Islands Growth Deal, and will be used to help the shell-volution project’s objectives of growth in the low-carbon and sustainable mussel farming sector. 

The funding will mostly be focused in Shetland, where 80 per cent of the countries mussels are produced, but it is also to spread more widely in Scotland. 

Existing farms are set to have their productivity, efficiency and resilience improved, while some of the funds will be used to develop new farm locations, creating more jobs. 

The project leaders anticipate that, through a phased programme of research and development, small businesses in the sector will be able to share in an anticipated growth in output to 18,000 tonnes by 2037.

The current output is roughly 10,000 tons per year, 2023 was the highest production ever in Scotland at 10,311 tonnes, despite fewer sites being in operation. 

The nine-year long project will focus research on better ways to farm within the marine environment. 

It will attempt to bring sustainable growth and additional quality jobs in mussel farming, based on detailed investigations (mapping and monitoring) and creating a model for improving security and reliability of wild spat recruitment, through industry best practice. 

Michael Tait from Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group said: "Mussel farming is recognised as one of the most sustainable forms of aquaculture due to its low environmental impact, contributing positively to local ecosystems and offering a low-carbon, nutritious food source.

"This project will help to overcome some of the challenges that the industry faces in terms of growth, while focusing firmly on continued sustainability and contributing to national net zero targets.

"The aim is to grow Scotland’s mussel production by an additional 10,000 tonnes per year, safeguarding existing jobs and creating new ones in an industry operating in many of Scotland’s more remote and fragile areas.

“The industry has faced challenges in terms of reliable spat (juvenile mussel) recruitment in the past, which has affected mussel production. A strand of this project will be to create more secure and reliable capture of spat to ensure consistent production.

“There is still much to learn around the productivity of a particular environment or location, so we will be developing predictive growth models to assess production capacity in current and future farm locations."