A GOURMET SHELLFISH PRODUCT WITH ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES OF PREPARATION AND FLAVORS!
Click here to learn about Mussel Farming
Since 1975 we’ve been farming mussels at Penn Cove and are America's oldest and largest commercial mussel farm.
At Penn Cove, we farm both the Penn Cove and Mediterranean Mussels, where both types occur naturally in the Puget Sound region. However, where Penn Cove Mussels are most commonly found throughout Washington State, the Mediterranean mussel is more commonly found further south. This includes California and in the latitudes similar to farms located in southern France, Spain, Italy and Greece.
Penn Cove Shellfish grows and harvests over two million pounds of mussels per year from our farm located in Penn Cove, Washington inside the beautiful Puget Sound.
We start production of our product on our farms and in our partner's hatchery and follow it through from planting, thinning, grow-out, harvest and distribution. We never feed or fertilize our shellfish, we only give them an ideal place to grow and thrive. Additionally, because they are filter feeders, our mussel farms enhance habitat and provide ecosystem services for many near shore species adding to the overall health of the marine ecosystem.
Most days our two 64-foot custom mussel harvesting vessels (the "Moule Mariner" and the "Mytilus") can be seen alongside our mussel rafts in Penn Cove. Each mussel raft supports between 900 to 2500 mussel lines and can yield up to 50 pounds of mussels on each line.
Did you know that mussels take about 12 months to reach a harvestable size? This means there's an ongoing rotation among the rafts between juvenile mussels and those ready to harvest, enabling year-round mussel production and optimum quality!
Click any of the buttons below to learn more about each specific type of mussel we grow.