After two or three years, the adults are sorted by weight and auctioned by the shipload to wholesalers, who return them to shallow tidal waters to mature and purge themselves of sandy mud.
Then they're harvested, scrubbed and shipped live across Europe to be cooked, often "a la mariniere" with white wine, shallots, parsley and butter, and eaten.
Most mussels are sold fresh, although some are canned or frozen, allowing them to be eaten in the warm summer months when female mussels are pregnant as well in the colder months.
Companies such as Prins en Dingemanse now also use sealed bags containing oxygen and carbon dioxide to keep live mussels fresh and juicy for up to a week.
Mussel traders also face an ongoing battle with conservationists trying to limit fishing of mussel seed, the preferred diet of birds such as eiderducks. The Dutch government decided in 1992 to establish a national mussel seed quota setting the percentage of seed that can be fished annually, divided up among the mussel farmers.
While the average Dutch household consumes 5kg of mussels a year, the average Belgian household eats three times that.
"Our guests ask for the typical Dutch Zeeland mussel," said restaurateur Wiskerke. "The French like very small mussels. The Belgians, our greatest customers, like a bigger mussel." Brussels restaurant Comme Chez Soi, with the maximum three Michelin stars, is planning to offer this season's North Atlantic mussels in a gueuze beer sauce with Ghentish mustard to tantalize the palate.
"The mussels are very fleshy, big and beautiful," said Lionel Rigolet, son-in-law and assistant to chef and owner Pierre Wynants. "People adore mussels in Belgium."
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