my own mussel farm?

[wotayottie]

Messing around with my ( new to me) swinger, I found the riser chain encrusted with big juicy mussels.

Question is, can I safely eat them after a day or two flushing in fresh Penryn river sea water or am I likely to be eating lots of dissolved iron and zinc salts from the chain? For that matter how clean is. Should I take the name of the town ( Flushing) as a warning.

 

[Nigel_Ward]

Commercial mussels got through a depuration system to clean them and kill bacteria.

http://cornishshellfish.co.uk/mussels/depuration.htm

I have eaten plenty that I picked myself, but I would enquire locally as to likely problems (toxins and bacteria).

 

[KevO]

Is there such a beast as fresh water from the Penryn river????? With all them bleddy 'Ryners' passing their personal effluent into it????

 

[Razorfish]

Eat mussels but maybe not from Penryn!

As another forumite has said, commercial mussels are depurated (purified) for a couple of days in clean seawater with gets rid of any gut contents and associated bacteria. Cooking will kill most viruses and bacteria from relatively clean waters.

I eat a lot of mussels gathered from all sorts of places but usually spots that I know are pretty clean - open coast, near commercial shellfisheries and not near outfalls or caravan parks (leak poo like sieves).

Shellfish producion sites undergo testing and are given a classification of A,B or C.

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/enforcement/shellclassew201112.pdf

Unfortuantely for you Penryn River is no longer classified because the water quality was so consistantly poor cultivation ceased. It was repeatedly classified as a class C water which means that even after depruation there is a risk of getting ill. In fact shellfish cannot be depurated from class C waters but have to be relaid in cleaner sites for a few months first.

I'd probably think twice about eating them from that river but then I do not have any local knowledge the site.

I certainly don't want to put anyone off eating shellfish as they are great but just use a bit of common sense in where you get them from - if it looks/smells a bit iffy it probably is!

Andy

 

[ffiill]

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE
My anchor chain warp attached to my riser buoy had been left hanging down two years growing mussels-when I cleared them away a 12/14mm chain was down to about 3mm in places.
I assume a concentration of salt expelled by mussels in what had become a moist oxygen rich environment had accelerated the corrosion.
Mussel free sections still were galvanised!

 

[simon barefoot]

Lived in/near Penryn for 25 years now, and lived aboard for near on 6 years on the river. I'll eat any fish from the river but no way on earth would I eat any mussels from the river. Hundreds of years of mine pollution and latter day anti foul would make them pretty much biohazard! Plenty on the beaches down Lizard if you want them!

 

[William_H]

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE
My anchor chain warp attached to my riser buoy had been left hanging down two years growing mussels-when I cleared them away a 12/14mm chain was down to about 3mm in places.
I assume a concentration of salt expelled by mussels in what had become a moist oxygen rich environment had accelerated the corrosion.
Mussel free sections still were galvanised!

I doubt that mussels caused the chain wear. It can wear quite well when clean of it's own accord. Yes check all of chain often.
Re eating mussels. I certainly eat mussels off my mooring rope chain and in some cases other boat hulls. No concerns although it is amazing how many people who don't love mussels will tell you how unsafe it is.
Don't know about your river though.
olewill