Penn Cove Pier is a private pier owned by the Penn Cove Shellfish, LLC and not open to the public. Penn Cove Mussels, Inc. was established by the Jefferds family in June of 1975, of Coupeville Washington, and is the oldest Commercial Mussel Farm in North America. Eleven years later the company was purchased by the Jefferds brothers, Ian and Rawle along with Ian′s wife Karen. And in 1996 the company formed a joint venture with Coast Seafoods Company, which is America′s largest oyster farm, and this joint venture is currently known as Penn Cove Shellfish, LLC.

Along with their world famous Penn Cove Mussels, the company farms Mediterranean Mussels, Manila Clams and Pacific Oysters. Additionally the company distributes 26 varieties of Pacific Oysters and Kumamoto Oysters which are receive from allied growers of the region.

At the present time, Penn Cove Shellfish grows and harvests over two million pounds of mussels per year from their two farms located in Penn Cove on Whidbey Island and the other in Quilcene Bay, located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

For as long as I personally have lived on Whidbey Island (I first arrived in September 1989), I have seen the floating rafts in Penn Cove and have always considered those rafts and the Penn Cove Pier to be mainstays of the island.