MUNICIPAL SHELLFISH RESTORATION: FORTY YEARS OF

EXPERIMENTATION AND PRODUCTION ON CAPE COD,

MA.

Sandy MacfarlaneCoastal Resource Specialists

ICSR 2008

CAPE COD, MA

15 Individual municipalities

Varying shellfish regulations

Each town responsible for propagation and management within its borders

Tourist-based economy regionally

Most towns have commercial wild, commercial aquaculture and recreational shellfish interests

Towns bought quahaug spawning stock from Cape Cod Bay or contaminated relays from the New Bedford area

Early soft shell clam transplants using a single harrow

Mechanized plowing for clam transplants

Using plowing and netting to try to catch a

set of seed clams

A Boston-bound barge entering the Cape Cod Canal ran aground on rocks, spilling 175,000 gallons (700,000 liters) of diesel fuel into the bay (in September 1969).

Evidence … suggests the effects of oil spills could be indefinite. Thirty years after the Massachusetts catastrophe, significant oil residues remain in local salt marsh sediments, according to researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Hatchery seed quahaugs first shipped from North Carolina

Floating sand-box rafts

Diverse raft designs

Bottom Culture

Land-based facilities

Spawning

Sieving larvae

Phytoplankton and larval culture

Inexpensive Gear

Upwellers using free jelly buckets with tight-fitting lids

Upwellers proved to be more space-efficient than floating sand-filled rafts

Program Expansion

Conventional, professional plumbing

Space for education/training

MassAlgaeCulture

Quahaugs or hard clams: the workhorse of shellfish propagation efforts

Soft shell clams

Bay Scallops

American oysters

Harwich Shellfish Facility

Heunz Proft and their space-saving upweller

array

Local High School Intern

The switch from traditional quahaug culture to oysters

Field Trials – catching spat and grow-out

Grow-out

Floating bags

Bay Scallops

Transplanting hatchery seed

Enhancing a public resource

COASTAL RESOURCE SPECIALISTS ICSR'05

MUNICIPAL SHELLFISH FACILITIES

COASTAL RESOURCE SPECIALISTS ICSR'05

HATCHERIES AND UPWELLERS

COASTAL RESOURCE SPECIALISTS ICSR'05

IMPROVING BARREN AREAS

Public Fishery

Tourists and residents both enjoy shellfishing

COASTAL RESOURCE SPECIALISTS ICSR'08

LICENSING COMMERCIAL AQUACULTURE

COASTAL RESOURCE SPECIALISTS ICSR'05

NECESSARY INGREDIENTS FOR RESTORATION

SOCIAL CLIMATE