An $80,000 grant, representing the first open-ocean mussel culture operation in North America, was awarded recently to Ken La Valley, Assistant Extension Professor/Specialist, Commercial Fisheries, and Andy Lang, a commercial mussel farmer from New Castle, to continue offshore aquaculture research with the mussel farm.

The $80,000 Small Business Innovative Research/USDA grant will look at the design and optimization strategies for processing open ocean mussels in the offshore environment.

The main goal of the proposed Phase I project is to improve wild mussel seed collection technology for offshore use and optimize off-shore handling of mussels from harvest through processing/packaging to reduce handling losses and increase final product quality. If successful, this will provide business opportunities across the coastal United States.