Report: Marine's Mussel Farm Tour

Member's Report
by Wong Se-Wei

We met up near the food stall at Pasir Panjang on a Thursday afternoon (14th December 2023) for the Mussel Farm Tour and Harvesting activity jointly hosted by MNS Selangor Branch Marine Group and The Beach School, Port Dickson. 

School's founder Kent Leong gave us an enlightening briefing on the anatomy of Mussels and Oysters. He introduced us to Pak Hitam, the owner of the farm and we walked down a ramp and through a rocky beach to access the farm during low tide to harvest the mussels and oysters. 

Armed with chisels and hammers, we twisted the mussels loose from their posts. The oysters proved a more formidable challenge and had to be chiseled and hammered out. The weather was fair with some cloud cover providing much needed respite from the afternoon heat. Harvested oysters eaten on the spot were delicious.

Mussels and oyster are naturally seeded on posts set by the farmer in the water not far from the beach. Harvesting activity can only be done during low tide, otherwise the posts are completely submerged. Besides harvesting mussels and oysters, we sighted several sea urchins, a puffer fish, a brittle star, sea star and pulmonate slug.

Since the date coincided with the Geminid Meteor shower, we took the opportunity to stay back in Port Dickson. Although it was partially cloudy, we managed to witness shooting stars streaking across the sky during our 45 minute vigil.

Photos: The Beach School