site.btaWhite Mussel Yield in Bulgaria Decreases by 60%, Says Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture

The yield of white mussels in Bulgaria has decreased by nearly 60% in 2023 compared to 2022, said Nikolay Georgiev, Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture (EAFA) on Tuesday. 

Georgiev added that the drop is 70% compared to 2019-2020. In 2018, the yield was 818 tonnes, after which the amount gradually began to decrease, reaching 450 tonnes in 2022, and 150 tonnes in 2023. The data is a warning that something is happening in the sea, said Georgiev. White mussel fishing was allowed in Bulgaria in 2013. According to experts, one of the reasons for the reduced yield of white mussels is its intensive catch, another is the increased population of rapana that eat the mussels. 

It was on the basis of the EAFA statistics that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food issued an order for a three-month ban on catching white mussels, noted Georgiev. "There was a protest last week by clam fishermen who spoke out against this ban, which restricts their ability to work, and there was some tension. I have had talks with the Ministry, and we have decided to get back together and revisit this decision once more to defuse the tension", said Georgiev. 

The EAFA organized a meeting with all interested parties on April 30, and Georgiev expressed hope that a compromise solution will be reached. "One of the options that we will discuss at the meeting is to slightly reduce the period of the ban or to divide the ban period into two, in order to have a spring-summer ban on white mussel fishing and an autumn-winter one", Georgiev noted. According to him, scientific reports show that the mussel reproduces between 12-17 degrees sea water temperature, which are reached between the months of April and June, as well as between October and November.