March 14, 2003

TENANTS HARBOR, MAINE — Tim Levesque of Trenton, Maine, comes from a family that has obtained its income from ship building and fishing for generations. Now, however, he faces a federally mandated limit of just 60 days for ground fishing which is not enough to keep their boat,ThunderBay, on the water.

He can convert the boat to shrimping, but that season has become too short for many fishermen to make a go of it. The possibility of the family's fishing tradition coming to an end was looming on the horizon. After working with Great Eastern Mussel Farms, of Tenants Harbor, Maine, Levesque seized the opportunity to contract out ThunderBay, which it turns out was perfectly suited to seeding mussel rafts.

There are fourteen 40' x 40' mussel rafts along the coast of Maine producing top quality cultured mussels. Most of the production is sold to Great Eastern which is marketing them as "Choice Cultured Mussels" and is successfully selling the plumpest shellfish available to restaurants around the United States. After installing a mussel seeding machine on ThunderBay, Levesque had the ability to wrap small four-month-old mussels (known as seed mussels) with biodegradable cotton mesh around the 40' ropes which are used to suspend the mussels off the ocean's bottom.

According to Terence Callery, Sales Manager of Great Eastern, sustainable aquaculture will become the norm in twenty-five years with more edible protein coming from farms like Great Eastern's than from the traditional wild fisheries. "This is an all-natural product where nothing is ever added; it is low in fat and high in protein and it is an excellent value to the consumer. This is why the per capita consumption of mussels has doubled in the past five years."