IMPLANTING A MUSSEL CULTURE FOR THE FIRST TIME.

    When implanting a mussel culture for the very first time in an area where it has never existed, the use of ropes for seed collection is not recommended. This is because if adult mussels are absent in the area, no spawning can have taken place and, as a result, the amount of seed collected would be practically zero.

    In these cases, it would be advisable to use seed collected from another area or collected from rocks.

    In each successive harvest the amount of seed collected will increase until the required quantity is reached, as long as the area provides the necessary conditions.

    The fixing of seed collected from rocks to the ropes is done by hand, without paying too much attention to the overall form of the re-tubing, as small seed can move around the rope very easily and will cover it in a very short time. The same is true of small seed (1 cm) from seed collectors.

    However, when the seed to be re-tubed is bigger than 2 cm. it is advisable to cover the rope uniformly to a diameter of not more than 10 cm, approximately. If the seed is even larger (3-4 cm.) the diameter of a re-tubed rope can be between 10 and 13 cm. In this case the re-tubing machine can be used. The re-tubing process can be carried out in a number of ways depending on the amount of seed available and the place where the ropes are to be located.

    It is not advisable to keep the seed out of the water for very long, especially in high temperatures. We have to take into account that it will be handled during de-clumping and grading, and, that these processes will lead to the loss of part of the water inside the seed. This can have a negative effect on the seed, slowing its growth until it recovers from the damage incurred during de-clumping and re-tubing. Generally speaking, however, handling will not lead to the mussel dying.

    This is one of the reasons which have led us to improve the way the de-clumping machine works on the mussel. We have managed to make the process more gentle to avoid some of the loss of water and, so, provide more favourable conditions for the mollusc.

    Whenever possible, we would recommend that re-tubing be carried out immediately after extracting the seed from the water. This is one of the factors that makes the continuous long-line system so suitable as it allows us to keep the seed out of the water for very brief periods.

    Another of the advantages of this system is that it does not require a great amount of space within the vessel to carry out these tasks. This is very important if small vessels are to be used.

    Depending on the amount of seed collected there will, obviously, be an important quantity of surplus, which will have to be placed on new ropes between lines. It should be taken into account that re-tubing is usually carried out with a third of the seed from the seed collectors. For this reason, it is useful to have "empty" lines from which to hang the new ropes obtained with the surplus seed.