Icelandic mussel farmer Vidir Bjornsson; wait, do we even need to go on? Let’s just pause for a moment to think how puny salutations like Miss, Mr. or Mrs. sound in comparison to Icelandic mussel farmer, which is just about the epitome of cool.

Anyway, back to the news. Icelandic mussel farmer Bjornsson will be speaking this Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library. His talk will focus on his experiences establishing an aquaculture project in the rough waters of the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea. The talk is sponsored by the Menemsha Fisheries Development Fund, which has a pilot mussel farming project underway in Vineyard Waters.

Before he began mussel aquaculture in 2000, Icelandic mussel farmer Bjornsson was a commercial fisherman in Iceland for 20 years, during which time he used every type of gear allowed in Icelandic waters, including purse seines, gillnets, longlines, trawlers and hook and line. He will talk about how he went from a trial-and-error project funded by the family “milk money” to a company that last year exported more than 80 tons of live mussels.

Icelandic mussel farmer Bjornsson now has 170 seed lines and 42 grow out lines in the water and hopes to increase production to 300 tons this year with a staff of up to 15 people. He will talk about the problems encountered along the way as he introduced the Canadian method of growing mussels on submerged lines after several failed attempts at the preferred European surface growing method. He battled bad weather, eider ducks, starfish and pea crabs before he found the right combination of gear and method that resulted in a financially successful venture.

Admission to the talk is free. For more information, call 508-645-3360.