Punt pays off for Mr Mussels

It's a cloudy morning and Westernport Bay is metallic grey as Michael Harris, known as Harry, skippers his flat-bottomed punt across the swell towards his mussel lease, a kilometre or so from the shore between Flinders and Shoreham on the Mornington Peninsula.

Harris has been an aquaculture industry stalwart for decades, doing the hard yards on other people's boats. A few years back he decided to work for himself, turning over enough mussels to earn a living and enjoy his workdays but not so big he had to take on staff. He loves the work: "I get to work where there are seals, whales and see beautiful little leafy sea dragons when I dive to check the ropes."

We come to a patch of water dotted with plastic barrels that serve as floats to keep his thick, five-metre long ropes encrusted with mussels suspended in the water column safely between the swell on the surface and the starfish on the bottom. "Starfish love mussels," Harris says.

The mussels he grows are Mytilus edulis, blue mussels native to the bays and estuaries of southern Australia. They are filter feeders living off phytoplankton, which in turn require nutrient rich run-off from creeks and rivers feeding the waterways. Mussels spawn in summer and in the wild the tiny spat attach themselves to rocks and sandy beds. In the past Harris had worked with the wild recruitment of spat, waiting for the little mussels to attach themselves to ropes naturally. Today he buys his ropes pre-impregnated with spat from a hatchery on the Bellarine Peninsula. They stay on the ropes in the water for more than a year. During that time Harris thins out the mussels to allow them to grow.

The on-board winch gives a final heave as he pulls a rope thick with mussels out of the water. They're alive, making the faintest clicking sound as they close themselves off from the air. Harris pulls one off - it's part of a special selection allowed to grow for more than two years. The mussel is large and fat, barely fitting in Harris' hand. He opens it with a knife - pink, plump and fat it sits in a pool of salty liquor. "The darker coloured ones are the females," he explains, "and the paler ones are the males."

Many well-known restaurants on the Mornington Peninsula, such as Montalto, the Long Table, Salix and Heronswood, are now serving Harris' Flinders Mussels. "I don't know if imitation is a compliment but there are a few chefs down here selling Flinders Mussels on the menu. And I can tell you I am not selling them to them!" Harris says. His mussels are large and meaty without being chewy and have a distinct salty tang of the sea balanced by delicate sweet meat.

Harris sells to the general public on weekends and public holidays from his small barge tethered to the Flinders Pier. "I charge $10 a kilo and I reckon I sell the most expensive mussels in the world," he says. "But I reckon they are the best."

Harris' mussel season closes the June long weekend.

Tips for home cooks

Harris recommends home cooks look over mussels one by one before cooking and discard any with broken shells or that are gaping open. "They are the dead ones," he says. He suggests giving a mussel a tap on the shell if it is open - if it closes, albeit slowly, it is still alive. Any mussels that don't smell fresh should be discarded. He says to rinse the mussels in a little fresh water and give them a little scrub if their shells are sandy or have algae on them. The beard, or threads that mussels use to attach themselves to ropes and rocks, can be removed easily. Harris takes a beard in between his fingers, pulls it out a little and pulls it back towards the pointy hinge. "Now they are ready for cooking," he says.