The Highland and Island Development Board encouraged the development from 1975, and several experimental mussel rafts are deployed at sites around Shetland, including Ronas Voe and Skeld. Shetland Islands Council took the lead in aquaculture experiments and trial mussel rafts are designed and built. An infant mussel industry begins to grow. The industry then saw a decline, as producers focused on the developing (and more lucrative) salmon farming industry.

The mussel industry would be reborn again in the 1990s.