A happy food chain: can mussel farming restore the UK’s damaged coastline?

Cultivating the shellfish creates a healthy habitat for everything from big fish to molluscs and could offer a sustainable alternative to meat or fish

The water beneath our boat is teeming with life. It is a fine Sunday morning on Loch Slapin on the Isle of Skye and Dr Judith Brown and Andrew Airnes are pointing below the surface to where they are hoping to grow more than 100 tonnes of high-quality animal protein suspended from four ropes.

You probably wouldn't be able to grow one sheep on that land-wise," says Airnes. Due in part to its tremendous efficiency, mussel farming is seen by a new generation of food producers as having exciting potential for feeding a growing population while restoring native biodiversity, which has been damaged or destroyed by pollution and harmful fishing practices.