New Zealand Herald writes - Once considered the poor man’s oyster, mussels are flexing their muscle on the Australian dining and tourism scene, writes Christine Retschlag On a blustery Bellarine day, long lines of black mussels are swaying in the breeze like an old Greek woman’s washing. To one side, the colourful crew of the aptly-named trawler Feral – all twisted steel and gadgets – are hauling in these Port Philip Bay bloomers – rustic ropes covered in molluscs. To the other side, tourists aboard the much more refined Valerie are participating in a gender-reveal party… with a difference. Read the rest of the story here

Broadsheet Writes: Feast on shellfish plucked fresh from the bay, and explore the source of Portarlington’s famous mussels, with a fifth generation sea farmer and his luxe Huon-pine trawler. There are plenty of local wines and eats on board, too. Valerie is a Huon-pine shark trawler built in Mordialloc in 1979. A few years ago, two blokes in their eighties began painstakingly refurbishing the boat by hand in Tasmania. The pair had been enlisted by husband-and-wife team Lizzy Franklin and Lance Wiffen, who had wanted to start a premium mussel tour business for 15 years. “We’ve taken people out on commercial boats before – TV chefs and things – but we needed something that was going to be really nice for people,” says Franklin. “Once Lance saw [Valerie in the