Catch-sorting rules bring Denmark’s mussel fishing to a halt

Newly enforced catch-sorting requirements have brought Danish mussel fishing to a standstill, Vildsund Blue director Poul Kærgaard told DR. The company says it cannot sort the large quantities of marine life caught alongside mussels by hand.

On a typical day during the peak season, 500 tonnes of mussels are landed at the harbour at the end of the long peninsula near Nykøbing Mors. The harbour is home to Denmark’s largest mussel producer, Vildsund Blue, but activity has now fallen unusually quiet.

Fisheries inspectors recently arrived with a requirement that goes beyond separating market-ready mussels from the rest of the catch. Vildsund Blue must now sort every species into its own category.

“There are four full A4 pages of species,” Kærgaard said, listing starfish, periwinkles, sand clams, gobies, three-spined sticklebacks, prawns, shore crabs, whelks and hermit crabs.

With fisheries inspectors monitoring the process, employees began sorting the catch by hand into small containers for each species.

“No, no, no. The quantities are far too large,” Kærgaard said. He said the company would need many more workers every day than its current 50 employees, several of whom have been sent home.

A typical load consists of about 60 per cent blue mussels ready for production and 40 per cent other species and shells, primarily old shells, according to the company.

Some of what Kærgaard calls waste, but which is otherwise classified as bycatch, is returned to the sea, while other material is ploughed into the soil. The same would happen if Vildsund Blue were able to sort everything, because the purpose of the sorting is to gather information rather than to use the catch.

Since 2013, EU rules have required fishermen to sort catches and register the species they contain. The purpose is to monitor marine life and important fish stocks, as well as what and how much is discarded.

In practice, not all catches are sorted. The largest fishing vessels, which catch herring, mackerel and other fish, use samples to assess the contents of their loads. The largest vessels can carry up to 3,500 tonnes.

The mussel industry wants to use the same sampling system. The Danish Fisheries Agency recently tried to obtain such an arrangement from the EU, but the EU declined to take a position because new rules are due to come into force in 2027.

As a result, the sorting rules are now being enforced, and mussel dredgers have returned to port and shut down their machinery.

The development has pleased nature groups on Facebook, which have criticised mussel fishing as one of the most damaging and controversial fishing methods. The method involves dragging one or two iron dredges across the seabed and collecting most of the material in a bag protected by chain mail.

Others have expressed frustration and blamed Environment and Fisheries Minister Maria Reumert Gjerding of the Socialist People’s Party. During her time as president of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, she supported a complete halt to mussel fishing.

Gjerding said in a written response that the rules come from the EU and that Denmark must comply with them.

“The options were either to follow the applicable rules or to have a special sampling arrangement approved. The previous government tried to get such an arrangement approved, but did not succeed,” she said.

“I am focused on trying to resolve the matter, and the Environmental Protection Agency remains in dialogue with the European Commission about a solution that complies with EU rules. I am following the dialogue closely.”

Kærgaard also accused the Danish Fisheries Agency of reacting too slowly.

“The Danish Fisheries Agency has been asleep at the wheel. But when fines are to be collected, they are quick,” he said.

Vildsund Blue mainly exports blue mussels to countries including France, England and Belgium. The company exports 96 per cent of the mussels dredged from the Danish seabed and landed at its facilities.

It is not currently peak season, so far fewer mussels are being landed. But as summer turns to autumn, Kærgaard wants the fishermen back on the water.

“There must be a solution by the middle of September. We have customers. If no mussels arrive for the supermarket chain we supply in France, we will be phased out. Then we will lose our employees and our know-how,” he said.