Gallo Mussel, Photo by FAO Who are they and where do they come from?
There are a variety of mussels on the seafood shelves and in restaurants of BC. You may have to look carefully to see where they have come from.
The main naturally occurring mussels are the “foolish” mussel Mytilus trossulus the California mussel Mytilus californianus, and the horse mussel Modiolus modiolus. None of these show up much in the markets. The “foolish” mussel is the small abundant one found growing in almost anything – it was the focus of aquaculture development in the 1980s and 1990s appears to have a problem of a summer die-off, maybe due to a “leukemia” disease introduced from the east coast with the soft-shell clam Mya arenaria. This means that it is not really large enough for the market. The California mussel, on the other hand, is too large and restricted to exposed shorelines, while the horse mussel is not very abundant intertidally and has not attracted much attention for eating.
In the fresh-fish section of a supermarket, the larger chain stores generally have mussels from Prince Edward Island. These are Blue Mussels – Mytilus edulis. They tend to be a bit stubby, and of all things, blue. They show up on the BC coast mixed in with the “foolish” mussel, probably introduced from the fresh-fish markets or aquaculture attempts. They are a bit hard to tell apart. Around Prince Edward Island and other parts of the maritimes the blue mussel is grown on suspended lines or harvested in deeper water by dredges. Those from PEI appear to have the marketing channels to BC worked out the best, and show up here in the markets alive.
The blue mussel is also grown in BC by some aquaculturists on Vancouver Island, most notably as the “honey mussel” – a strain that has been selected for its brown shell colour. These may show up on your restaurant plate.
The “gallo” or mediterranean mussel is currently one of the most cultured mussels in BC. This is a slightly larger mussel that probably arrived in ballast1 water on several occasions and on the hull of a Greenpeace boat. This mussel originates in the Mediterranean, but probably occurs throughout much of the world now. It is most likely to show up in some of the smaller independent fresh-fish markets and in restaurants – primarily from an aquaculture farm on Saltspring Island.
A fourth mussel that shows up in restaurants, some fresh-fish markets, and the gourmet canned and frozen food section are green-lipped mussels. These are imported primarily from New Zealand, where they are grown on suspended ropes. Compared to other mussels on the market,
1 ballast: (Nautical) any heavy material carried temporarily or permanently in a vessel to provide desired draft and stability. This includes rocks, gravel, and water. (www.dictionary.com) this mussel is a bit larger, a bit more elongated, brownish, and with, of all things, green edges on the shell.
Processing:
Processing of mussels in preparation for markets in North America generally consists of cleaning the shells in a rotating drum and removing the hairy “byssus” gland. Both are done primarily directly on the mussel farm, before they get shipped directly to a wholesaler or market where they are sold in the shell. In other countries, as in some parts of the Canadian maritimes, the principal market may be for mussels that have been removed from the shell and canned. There are small cottage industries for local markets, with the mussels sold in jars, but the canned mussels are generally done in larger processing plant that may be anywhere in the world (look for “product of..” label on the can; if this is missing, it might come from Thailand or China).
Seafood journey:
Try mapping out the path that the different mussels follow to get to your plate. Think of the different people and methods involved for each case.