A Sea Change for Conservation

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.
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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.