Maison de la Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel

If you want a cultural and gastronomic stopover, this fun and informative visit will teach you everything about oyster cultivation.

The focus of the permanent exhibition is on the mussel and the natural resources of the bay.
The kilometer-long row of posts in the bay and the funny aluminum boats on wheels leave no doubt about the local activity: mussel cultivation in mussel pits.

Museum and guided amphibious vehicles to the mussel banks and other coastal features.
Mussel culture is the breeding of filtering molluscs of the family Mytilidae called "mussels", more precisely "marine mussels" (by differentiation of "freshwater mussels").
Three species are mainly exploited in mussel culture, among Mytilus edulis is the only one on the Atlantic coasts, the coast of Brittany, in all the north of Europe, as well as in Canada. The mussel beds, whether natural or exploited, are called "moulières". More than 700,000 t of mussels are produced in Europe each year, with a steady decline in production since 1999.
The main breeding techniques are the bouchots: wooden or plastic vertical poles driven on the foreshore around which coir ropes are wrapped and served as a sensor for the spat of mussels. Mid-rearing is added a net (called "catin") which prevents the mussels from falling out, the bunches of mussels that are least hooked are collected and put back in a tubular net to make "boudins" which are put back on the farm. a new stake (left picture). This technique requires a high tide (height between the high and the low sea), because the posts must be covered at high tide and accessible for the professional at low tide.
The second method is the dies: breeding in suspension, a main rope is maintained on the surface by buoys on a hundred meters, the two ends are fixed at the bottom by anchors. Weighted cords at the end are attached to the main rope, and coir cords support mold spats are wrapped around the suspensions. The advantage of this technique lies in the fact that the mussels are in the water continuously and can therefore feed uninterruptedly, the main disadvantage is predation by sea bream. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mytiliculture