Mussel Shucking Champion & AI Tech
Wood-Chopping, Sheep shearing, and mussel shucking…. At the recent Mussel Festival in Havelock, our very own Mark Burnaby won the Mills Bay raw Mussel Shucking competition. Mark was “Shucked” to beat more favoured rivals such as Brian Godsiff from Clearwater and earn the right to have his name engraved on the trophy alongside industry legends such as Les McClung, Vaughan Ellis, Dean Higgins and Art Blom Jnr.
Mark has become a champion in the art of mussel shucking because of his role as Aquaculture Manager, where a very important part of his job is the constant monitoring of the condition of mussels on our farms. This is a big job with literally hundreds of lines across the region. Arriving at a farm requires hauling lines up to get samples, shucking them to view the meat with his naked eye to assess their condition. This leads to critical decisions about which lines to harvest and when, which has a big impact on the success of our factory performance where yield is so important.
Mark is an expert in assessing the condition of mussels, but he is human, and now we know that a machine using AI can do it even better. This is good news for us as we can make even better decisions by using the AI via a service called harvesthub. Mark will have to hand over his trophy of being the king of assessing mussels to harvesthub, but at least he still retains the glory of being the best mussel shucker in the land… at least until next year’s festival.
