June 19, 2000

Mussel farmers in Maine have been harvesting raft-cultured mussels by hand - a back-breaking job with low yields. Now, they can turn their efforts into high yield commercial operations by using Great Eastern's new harvest barge, called Mumbles , which was launched in Trenton, Maine, on June 26, 2000.

Great Eastern Mussel Farm's harvest barge, named Mumbles.

Chip Davison, Great Eastern's president, says, "Harvesting a few bushels at a time is extremely inefficient. So, if the fishermen work together and use the new barge, they will increase their business. We designed and built it for them." The company name for the new venture is Aquaculture Harvesters.

Now that there are numbers of rafts along the Maine coast, the mussels are maturing, and the company believes it has a responsibility to provide "Phase II" of the operation to the emerging raft mussel aquaculture industry in Maine.

Mumbles , the first harvest barge for raft aquaculture products in Maine (if not the entire U.S.),was launched on Monday, June 26, 2000. The steel harvest barge, built by Vic Levesque at Bar Harbor Marine, is 60' X 24' (including side rail) and weighs thirty tons. Mumbles will be available year-round and can harvest 200 bushels or 10,000 lbs. of mussels a day.

In addition to increasing the raft harvest of mussels, the harvest barge will clean the mussels and get them 75% ready for market. Then, at Great Eastern's plant in Tenants Harbor, the mussels will go through purging, grading, debyssing and packaging for the foodservice markets.