The mussel farm occupies the size of eight football fields and harbors millions of mussels sitting on a total of 24,000 meters of cultivation rope. The ropes were imported from New Zealand and are colloquially called "Christmas trees," as they actually look like Christmas garlands.
"Mussel larvae swim freely in the water for two to three weeks. Then they try to find something to cling onto, and this is when they find my rope," mussel farmer Mats Emilsson said.
Next year, Emilsson plans to remove 230 kilograms of nitrogen and 35 kilograms of phosphorus from the Baltic Sea.
At present, there is no commercial market for the blue mussel in Sweden. Emilsson's mussel farm is financed with EU money, and he hopes that his harvest will be ground down and sold as animal food.
#Musselodling-projekt mot #övergödning i #Östersjön får 50 miljoner https://t.co/2p8kZ8Z25A @regionost #balticsea pic.twitter.com/lwsBbj6sdZ
— Länsstyrelsen Öst. (@LSTOstergotland) 26 ноября 2015 г.
According to Katarina Elofsson, a researcher in environmental economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), mussels cannot compete with other, cheaper forms of animal feed. Without government support, mussel farming will not be effective against eutrophication, she noted.
"To really tackle eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, it would take a huge number of mussel farms. Say up to 30,000. I do not think it can be realized in the near future," Katarina Elofsson said.
Pumpa ner syre i havet delar fackfolket. Räddar det eller kan det skada? #fixaskärgården #övergödning http://t.co/2s3pSeowQf via @ylefixa
— Pia Santonen (@piasantonen) 25 июля 2014 г.
The Baltic Sea is one of the most heavily trafficked seas in the world. There are about 2,000 ships in the Baltic marine area at any given time, mostly cargo vessels and tankers. In recent years, new chemicals have been found there by researchers. Often the substances accumulate and form cocktails with uncharted impacts on the marine ecosystem or humans.