The Harvest of the Sea / A contribution to the natural and economic history of the British food fishes

by James Glass Bertram

Considering the importance attached by fishermen to the easy attainment of a cheap supply of bait, it is surprising that no attempt has been made in this country to economise and regulate the various mussel-beds which abound on the Scottish and English coasts. The mussel is very largely used for bait, and fishermen have to go far, and pay dear, for what they require—their wives and families being also employed to gather as many as they can possibly procure on the accessible places of the coast, but usually the bait has to be purchased and carried from long distances. I propose to show our fisher-people how these matters are managed in France, and how they may obviate the labour and expense connected with bait buying or gathering, by growing such a crop of mussels as would not only suffice for an abundant supply of bait, but produce a large quantity for sale as well.

MUSSEL-STAKES.

Mussel-culture has been carried on with immense success on a certain part of the coast of France for a period of no less than seven centuries! So long ago as the year of grace 1135 an Irish barque was wrecked in the Bay of Aiguillon. The cargo and one of the crew were saved by the humanity of the fishermen inhabiting the coast. The name of the one man who was thus saved from shipwreck was Walton, and he gave to the people, in gratitude for saving his life, the germ of a marvellous fish-breeding idea. He invented artificial mussel-culture. An exile from Erin, Walton was ingenious enough to create a “hurdle,” which, intercepting the spat of the mussels, served as a place for them to grow. In a sense, the origin of this mussel-farm was accidental. The bay where this industry is now flourishing was, at the time of the shipwreck, and is at present, a vast expanse of mud, frequented by sea-fowl, and it was while devising a kind of net or trap for the capture of these that he obtained the germ of his future idea of mussel-culture. The net or bag-trap which he employed in catching the night birds which floated on the water was fixed in the mud by means of tolerably strong supports, and he soon found out that the parts of his net which were sunk in the water had intercepted large quantities of mussel-spat, which in time grew into the finest possible mussels, larger in size and finer in quality than those grown upon the neighbouring mud. From less to more this simple discovery progressed into a regular industry, which at present forms almost the sole occupation of the inhabitants of the neighbouring shores. The system pursued is that invented by Walton about the middle of the twelfth century, and has been handed down from generation to generation in all its original simplicity and ingenuity. The apparatus for the growth of the mussel, with which the bay is now almost covered, is called a bouchot, and is of very simple construction. A number of strong piles or stakes, each 12 feet in length and 6 inches in diameter, are driven into the mud to the depth of 6 feet, at a distance of about 2 feet from each other, and are ranged in two converging rows, so as to form a V, the sharp point of which is always turned towards the sea, that the stakes may offer the least possible resistance to the waves. These two rows form the framework of the bouchot. Strong branches of trees are then twisted and interwoven into the upper part of the stakes, which are 6 feet in height, until the whole length of the row is, by this species of basket-work on a large scale, formed into a strong fence or palisade. A space of a few inches is left between the bottom of the fence and the surface of the mud, to allow the water to pass freely between the stakes when the tide ebbs and flows. The sides of the bouchot are from 200 to 250 metres long, and each bouchot, therefore, forms a fence of about 450 metres, 6 feet high. There are now some 500 of these bouchots or breeding-grounds in the Bay of Aiguillon, making a fence of 225,000 metres, extending over a space of 8 kilometres, or 5 miles, from the point of St. Clemens to the mouth of the river of Marans.

A MUSSEL-FARM.

The Bay of Aiguillon, as has already been observed, is a vast field of mud, and, when left dry at low water, it is impassable on foot. To enable him to traverse it at low water, the boucholeur uses a canoe. This canoe, formed of plain planks of wood, is about nine feet in length and eighteen inches in breadth and depth, the fore-end being something like the usual shape of the bow of a boat. The boucholeur places himself at the stern of the canoe, rests his right knee on the bottom of the boat, leans his body forward, and, seizing the two sides of the canoe with his hands, throws out his left leg, which is encased in a strong boot, backwards to serve as an oar. In this position he pushes his left leg in and out of the mud, and thus propels his light boat along the surface to whatever part of the field he wishes to visit. Notwithstanding the windings and twistings of the confused maze formed on the surface of the bay by the bouchots, long habit enables the boucholeur, even in the darkest night, to distinguish his neighbour’s establishment in the crowd. The boucholeur uses his canoe not only in transporting his mussels from the bouchot to the shore, and attending to the various operations of the mussel-field, but also in conveying to the proper spot the stakes and hurdles necessary for the construction and repair of the bouchots. The furrows left by the canoe in the mud might, in the summer time, by hardening in the sun, render the propulsion of his canoe across the field a very arduous task to the boucholeur. Nature has, however, provided an admirable remedy for this possible evil. A small crustacean, the corophie, appears in great numbers in the mud-field about the end of the month of April, and during the summer months levels and overturns many leagues of these furrows, and mixes the mud with water, in searching after the innumerable multitudes of worms (annelidæ) of all species that infest the mud. The corophies, which are remarkably fond of these marine worms, pursue them in every direction through the mud; and, by their vigorous efforts to discover their prey, prevent the furrows from forming an obstacle to the progress of the boucholeur. This crustacean disappears suddenly, in a single night, towards the end of October.

The cultivation of mussels is carried on by the inhabitants of the communes of Esnandes, Chavron, and Marsilly. Many of the boucholeurs possess several bouchots, while the poorest of them have only a share of one bouchot, cultivating it, together with the other owners, and dividing the profits among them, according to their shares. The bouchots are arranged in four divisions, according to their position in the bay, and are distinguished as bouchots du bas or d’aval, bouchots batard, bouchots milieu, and bouchots d’avant. The bouchots du bas, placed farthest from the shore, and only uncovered during spring tides, are not formed of fences as the bouchots proper, but consist simply of a row of stakes, planted about one boat distant from each other, and in the most favourable position for the preservation of the naissain, or young of the mussels. Upon these isolated stakes the spat is allowed to collect, which is afterwards to be transplanted for the purpose of peopling barren or poorly-furnished palisades in those divisions which, planted nearer the shore, are more frequently uncovered by the tide.

The various operations of mussel-cultivation are designated by agricultural terms—such as sowing, planting, transplanting, etc. Towards the end of April the seed (semence) fixed during February and March to the stakes of the bouchot du bas is about the size of a grain of flax, and is then called naissain. By the month of July it attains the size of a bean, and is called renouvelain, and is then ready for transplantation to a less favourable state of existence upon the bouchot batard, where the action of the tide would probably have retarded its growth if transplanted earlier. In the month of July, then, the boucholeurs direct their canoes towards the isolated stakes, bearing the semence, now developed into the renouvelain, which they detach by means of a hook fixed to the end of a pole. Care is taken to gather such a quantity as they are able to transplant during low water—the only time when this operation can be carried on. The semence, placed in baskets, is transported by means of the canoe to the fences of the bouchot batard. The operation of fixing the renouvelain upon the palisades of the bouchot batard is called la batrisse. The semence, enclosed in bags of old net, is placed in all the empty spaces along the palisades until the hurdles are quite covered, sufficient space being left between the bags to admit of the growth of the young mussels. The bags soon rot and fall to pieces, leaving the young mussels adhering to the sides of the bouchot. The mussels by and by attain a large size, and grow so close to each other that the whole fence looks like a wall blackened by fire.

When the mussels grow so large that they touch and overlap each other, the cultivator thins the too-crowded ranks of the bouchots batard, in order to make way for a younger generation of mussels. The mussels thus obtained are transplanted and placed on the empty or partially-covered hurdles, and transplanted to the bouchot milieu, which is uncovered during neap-tides. This operation is performed in the manner already described, only the larger size of the mussels renders the use of a net to enclose them unnecessary. The labour of transplanting is continued so long as there remain upon the bouchot du bas any renouvelain fit for being placed on the bouchots nearer the shore. The work must be carried on at all times of the day and night during low water, as that is the only period that the bouchots are uncovered. There is also the labour of replacing and covering with mussels any of the palisades that may have sunk or been broken.