Seafood

For the new website of Sylter Muscheln Holding GmbH, designed by Neoist, a five-minute short documentary on sustainable mussel farming off the coast of Sylt was produced in summer 2022. Around half of the island is protected nature reserve. The waters surrounding Sylt, stretching to the horizon, form part of Germany’s largest protected area and are recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mussel fishing has a long-standing tradition here. Today, modern mussel aquaculture occupies only around 0.75 per cent of the National Park area.

The waters off Hörnum are at the heart of mussel farming in Schleswig-Holstein. Every spring, seed mussel collection systems capture young mussels using large-mesh nets. Three months later, the mussels are harvested by specialist vessels and distributed across designated aquaculture areas on the seabed. There, the mussels grow for two to three years before being landed. On board the cutters, the crews clean and sort the catch before packing it into large bags for transport to processing facilities operated by AquaTriton in Yerseke.

For almost ten years, mussel farmer Adriaan Leuschel has overseen the sustainable cultivation of bottom-grown mussels, a method regarded as particularly productive. His Original Sylter Muscheln carry both the MSC certification and organic certification. Between July and December, the crews of his company’s modern vessels — Wyk 1, Wyk 3, Wyk 8 and Wyk 9 — head out to sea daily to harvest mussel seed, redistribute it across cultivation areas and, two to three years later, land the fully grown mussels ready for consumption. Further information about the company can be found at syltermuscheln.com.