Mussels

Mirror, mirror, on the wall... who is the most colorful of them all ?

If you’ve ever ate mussels before, you may have noticed that some are a creamy light orange, while and others are a more vibrant dark orange.
The color difference is how you can tell a female mussel from male mussels.
The ladies are more colorful; as if they wore make up !

Salmon and Mussels... Perfect harmony

Mussels and kelp growing adjacent to Atlantic salmon cages in the Bay of Fundy have been monitored since 2001 for contamination by medicines, heavy metals, arsenic, PCBs and pesticides. Concentrations are consistently either non-detectable or well below regulatory limits established by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the United States Food and Drug Administration and European Community Directives. Taste testers indicate that these mussels are free of "fishy" taste and aroma and could not distinguish them from "wild" mussels. The mussels' meat yield is significantly higher, reflecting the increase in nutrient availability.
Recent findings suggest mussels grown adjacent to salmon farms are advantageous for winter harvest because they maintain high meat weight and condition index (meat to shell ratio). [1}

1. Haya K, Sephton D, Martin J and Chopin T. 2004. Monitoring of therapeutants and phycotoxins in kelps and mussels co-cultured with Atlantic salmon in an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture system. Bulletin of the Aquaculture Association of Canada.

Community Supported Fisheries

Here's a great example of a CSF in Atlantic Canada !
Check it out !
So true is the fact that more and more we are becoming interested in where our food comes from. We like to know who farmed our vegetables, who raised the cattle we are eating, but we seem to be less concerned about where our fish comes from.
Maybe it's time for a change !

Click here and watch their video !

What does Nova Scotia farm?

A variety of shellfish, finfish, and aquatic plants are farmed in Nova Scotia. 
Farmed species of shellfish include: Soft shell clams, Blue Mussels, American Oysters, European Oysters, Quahogs, and Scallops. 
Finfish that are farmed include: Arctic Char, Halibut, Atlantic Salmon, European Sea Bass and Trout. 
Aquatic plants farmed in Nova Scotia are Irish Moss and Knotted Wrack. [1]

1. http://aansonline.ca/