Initiating full scale mussel farming in the Baltic Sea

One of the most serious challenges the Baltic Sea is facing is eutrophication, the enrichment of ecosystems by chemical nutrients. The objective of the project is to remove nutrients from the Baltic Sea Region by farming and harvesting blue mussels. This may be a stand-alone measure to counteract eutrophication, but can also become a business model for the feed industry and be used in symbiosis with fish farms.

Mussels farmed in Baltic Sea waters are less appropriate for human consumption, mainly due to their small size. Instead, they are used in the feed industry to replace e.g. imported fish and soybean meal. Previous projects have shown that mussel farming in the Baltic Sea is feasible and beneficial to the environment. This project aims to proceed from pilot stage to real cases and build up an awareness and capacity concerning blue growth and mussel farming among the private and public sectors. The project will follow four focus farms and two test farms where environmental, legal, commercial and maritime spatial planning (MSP) issues are clarified. The partners cover the essential target groups needed for such a wide range of interest and competence areas including mussel farmers, authorities, related associations, research organisations and commercial partners.

The main outputs of the project will be models and functional decision support tools based on environmental data collated from focus farms. Further outputs are four operational mussel farms, which contribute to business plans and manuals for mussel farmers in general. Different technology for farming mussels in BSR conditions will be tested and collated. A status report on legislation issues for mussel farming will be conducted.

Project partners

• Region Östergötland – Lead partner (SE);
• Coastal Research & Management - CRM (DE);
• SUBMARINER Network for Blue Growth (DE);
• Ministerium für Energiewende, Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und ländliche Räume (DE);
• EUCC - Die Küsten Union Deutschland e.V (DE);
• Orbicon (DK);
• Musholm (DK);
• Instytut Morski w Gdańsku (PL);
• Länsstyrelsen Kalmar län (SE);
• SP Sveriges Tekniska Forskningsinstitut AB (SE);
• Länsstyrelsen Östergötland (SE);
• Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet - SLU (SE);
• Vattenbrukscentrum Ost (SE);
• Kurzemes plānošanas regions (LV);
• Latvijas Hidroekologijas instituts (LV);
• Tartu Ülikool (EE);
• Borgholms kommun (SE);
• Kalmar Kommun (SE).