In a unique pilot program under the
Environmental Quality Incentives
Program (EQIP), Cape Cod's shellfish growers were eligible
for cost-share assistance on conservation practices for the first
time in 2005. In 2005, some $247,000 in cost-share funding was provided
through 21 contracts with aquaculturists who raise scallops,
oysters and clams throughout Cape Cod.
For 2006, nearly $302,000 in cost-share will be provided
through 13 contracts covering 44 acres of shellfish beds,
primarily in Barnstable Harbor.
"Barnstable Harbor is our targeted growing area for 2006,"
said Don Liptack, NRCS District Conservationist for Cape Cod and
the Islands. "Sixty-seven percent of the growers in Barnstable
Harbor will participate this year, which will have a more
effective impact on the water body."
Next year, Wellfleet Harbor will be targeted, according to
Liptack, then other Massachusetts water bodies in subsequent
years. Shellfish aquaculture best management practices protect water
quality by controlling oil and gasoline emissions from outboard
motors, endangered species through gear management, and
shellfish health through buffers, record keeping and monitoring. On October 4th, NRCS
Chief Bruce Knight and USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural
Resources and the Environment Merlyn Carlson visited the
Wellfleet Harbor growers to learn more about this special kind
of farming and its unique conservation practices.
Shellfish aquaculture is the commercial seeding, growing and
harvesting of marine mollusks or other invertebrates in a
natural or manufactured environment.
Town-issued shellfish licenses allow growers to farm in off-shore
waters. Statewide, shellfish growers farm 300 acres.
Aquaculture (shellfish and finfish) in Massachusetts is a
$6.9 million industry. The value of shellfish farming in
Wellfleet Harbor alone is estimated at $2-3 million.
For Cape Cod's growers, aquaculture can be either a full-time
or part-time occupation. Operations vary in size, though even a
small operation can be profitable; a two acre shellfish farm
can support a business.
To raise oysters, "seed" is planted in metal mesh racks that protect
the juvenile mollusks from predators. With legs that sit on the
sea bed, the racks are covered by water at high tide but are
exposed and accessible at low tide.
As the animals mature, they are planted in the sea bed until
they are harvested. The racks are not used when raising clams. Growers do not feed the shellfish nor add
anything else to them. The bivalves filter all the nutrients
they need from the water.
A 100 foot row will produce 75,000 to 100,000 animals or five
tons of product. As one grower put it, aquaculture is
sustainable fishing.
And as the state agriculture department's aquaculture
specialist, Scott Soares, likes to say: aquaculture is
agriculture...just add water.
View a video slideshow
on the shellfish aquaculture EQIP pilot.
(requires
Windows Media Player)
Download this article in PDF format.
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Photographs by Diane Baedeker Petit, Public Affairs
Specialist, NRCS Massachusetts
For more information on aquaculture in the Bay State, visit the
Massachusetts Aquaculture
Association website.
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