Project
SMP23023 Increasing resilience of blue mussels in culture
Mass mussel mortalities during farming is a growing problem in several European countries. Since 2014, mass mortalities of blue mussel stocks have been reported almost annually. The exact cause of these events is still unclear.
The mussel industry is desperately looking for management perspectives to handle these unpredictable negative impacts on their mussel yields.
It is therefore of great importance to gain more insight into the cause of these mass mortalities and to investigate possible innovations to minimize mussel die-offs. This is a challenge, as mussel farming is an extensive industry that largely takes place in nature.
Optimization of the resilience of mussels to environmental stressors,
such as pathogens, and ultimately the increase of mussel yields is key. Therefore, besides gaining more knowledge about the occurrences of mass mortalities of mussels we propose to look into husbandry practices that can improve the resilience of mussels to environmental stressors.