Free dive for blue mussels

There are sites in the Algarve that appears to be unknown to mankind. I say this based on the existing  fauna and flora.  Long gone are the days when I dive after mussels. Usually I catch them on the waterline with low tide.

It was not the case this weekend.

I went to visit an old place for seafood picking, that i haven't visit for decades. About  4 ~ 6 meters deep, there are mussels of 10-12 cms.

So it was. To my surprise, it still is.

 It's a tiresome technique/harvest because each dive you only pick 3 or 4 mussels and you'll get hands full so you'll return to the basket to leak your hands.

With the bottom filled with mussels, is hard to believe that such places have escaped the human greed. The best is not to say where it is because it appears to be an unknown place to the humanity. That place could become a desert overnight.

The important thing to who harvest here, is to take only what you need and leave the rest for the next picking.

Here is a small film released on YouTube with images of these mussel forests.