FRIEND of the Sea has certified Mont Saint Michel Bay ‘moules de bouchot’ from Trad’Ocean.

The Mont Saint Michel Bay ‘bouchot’ mussels, pride of French cuisine, can now make claims also about the sustainability of their culture method. The certification followed an independent audit of compliance to Friend of the Sea’s strict requirements.

The culture method dates back to the XIII Century when Patrick Walton, an Irish traveller said to have been shipwrecked on the Mont Saint Michel Bay, accidentally discovered mussels’ propensity to aggregate on ropes and fatten remarkably. The culture method was named by a combination of two Irish words of the time: Bout=fence, Chot=Wood.

The traditional French ‘bouchot’ method of mussel culture is carried out on wooden poles that are placed upright into the sea bed in the low inter-tidal region. Mussel spat can be mechanically loaded into a long “stocking” of natural fibre that can then be wound around the bouchot. As the stocking fibre rots, the mussels attach by their byssus threads to the bouchot.

In Mont Saint Michel bay tides have a wide amplitude of 14 metres which allows water to remain clean and plankton rich at all times. The mussel growing areas act as reserves as no fishing is allowed there. 30% of the mussels are returned to the spawning grounds and for birds. Trad’Ocean has provided evidence of the ‘certified sustainable forest’ origin of the wooden poles used and it has engaged at assessing and gradually reducing its per unit energy consumption.

Trad’Océan mussels are sold with the Friend of the Sea ecolabel by the Swiss company Covedis and Swiss retail chain Manor.

“This recognition is an additional confirmation of the natural origin and high quality of our mussels,” comments Mr Le Bihan, director of Trad’Ocean"