 |
| THIS ISSUE |
| HOME |
| SUBSCRIBE |
Growing the State’s Aquaculture Industry Through Outreach and EducationBy Monica Allard Cox Launching a new business is challenging enough, from developing the necessary knowledge and skills to obtaining funding, location, and permits. Add to that the challenge of starting an entire new industry, and you have aquaculture in Rhode Island. To whom do aquaculturists here turn for examples and guidance? What Rhode Island lacked in practitioners, it made up for in university-based research, and the Rhode Island Aquaculture Initiative (RIAI) fostered a connection between academic research and industry. The initiative has supported public education and outreach activities as well as demonstration facilities that provide places to conduct research directly applicable to the industry. “Rhode Island has been quite fortunate to have not only world-class researchers, but world-class researchers who contribute to public outreach and education,” says David Alves, Rhode Island state aquaculture coordinator at the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). “The combination of Rhode Island Sea Grant, Roger Williams University (RWU), and the University of Rhode Island (URI) has made an outstanding contribution to the public’s understanding of aquaculture in Rhode Island and ensures the development of a sustainable industry that will benefit all of the state’s citizens.” Oyster Gardening But for a variety of reasons, oyster populations declined dramatically in Narragansett Bay and the salt ponds over the years, and Rhode Island is better known today for its official shellfish, the quahog, than for its oysters. The biggest problem facing oysters in state waters recently has been disease. Ten years ago, baby oysters were prevalent enough in some areas that beachgoers could cut their feet on them. Shortly after that, however, the parasite dermo killed 90 percent of the oyster population, and combined with commercial harvesting, oysters in Rhode Island waters were decimated, says Steve Patterson, who leads an oyster restoration program, Rhode Island Oyster Gardening for Restoration and Enhancement (RI-OGRE), at RWU. Since then, Patterson has yet to find a place in Rhode Island where oysters have done a natural set. In areas where oysters are found, Patterson believes they are “dinosaurs” that have not reproduced. “When they die, there won’t be any to take their place,” he says. To remedy that, the RI-OGRE program was started with funding from the RIAI. Patterson needed waterfront homeowners willing to volunteer their docks or mooring balls as temporary homes for floating cages of baby oysters. Patterson sent out press releases in 2006, and by the end of June that year, newspapers had picked up the story, and potential oyster gardeners began contacting the program. Patterson looked them up on Google Earth to see where they lived, and had to turn many potential volunteers away if they lived along waters closed or conditionally closed to shellfishing. The R.I. Department of Health would only allow the project to grow shellfish in waters that were open to shellfishing year-round, even though the project’s oysters were to be tagged and used strictly for restoration, not for human consumption. The health department, Patterson says, did not want to take any risks, and so the program had 18 oyster garden-ers in 2006. At each gardener’s dock or mooring ball, Patterson installed oyster floats—mesh cages that measure 3 feet by 4 feet wide and are 10 inches deep, surrounded by a floating ring and containing a mesh bag with clamshells for the seed oysters to attach to. Patterson says not a lot of maintenance is required on the part of the oyster gardeners, just “flipping and flushing” the cages periodically. As the oysters eat and grow, they produce waste, which the gardeners can disperse from the cages by flushing them up and down in the water. “It looks like dust coming out,” Patterson says. Because the cages are near the surface, where algae tend to grow, gardeners also flip the cages every week or so to minimize algae growth that would otherwise dominate the surface. For those gardeners who are elderly or disabled, and have trouble performing the flip-and-flush routine, Patterson is working with Boy Scouts to find volunteers to help maintain the cages. When the oysters grow too large for the bag, the bag is cut open, and the oysters lie on the bottom of the cage. Though this operation seems simple, Patterson doesn’t ask the gardeners to do it—at thumbnail size, oyster shells are “like razors” and contain a bacteria that can result in a minor, but painful, infected cut. In December, once the growing season is over and before surface waters freeze, oysters are transplanted to designated restoration areas at Prudence Island and Bristol Harbor, where program staff dropped clam shells to firm up the bottom to prepare for the transplant. In 2007, Patterson added a site off the Potowomut River between North Kingstown and East Greenwich, and will add other sites in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who would like to locate transplant sites in areas in need of erosion control, such as along the Narrow River. The oysters act as natural stabilizers that help keep the waterways from eroding with tidal surge. In 2007, the program was allowed to expand to conditionally closed waters, such as the Kickemuit River. Thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations from 2006 participants as well as press coverage on the program, 70 people expressed interest in becoming oyster gardeners, Patterson says. This time, participation was limited in part by the funding available to buy materials to build the oyster cages, and 55 volunteers were selected. Patterson hopes to expand the program in 2008 to include 100 oyster gardeners. There are more float sites on the Kickemuit than not, Patterson says. “It seems about every dock or every other dock has one of our floats.” In the off season, Patterson attends a variety of events to drum up volunteers. He spoke at a Propeller Club meeting in Somerset, Mass.—where a shipping company president handed him his card and offered to be an oyster gardener—and staffed a booth at an event at North Kingstown High School, where he picked up two more volunteers. “I never know who one of my next oyster gardeners is going to be,” he said, adding that word of the program has spread through waterfront communities’ association meetings. “Word of mouth has been very positive.” After all, each adult oyster can filter 50 gallons of water per day, generating a water quality benefit that appeals to coastal homeowners. While the RIAI funding has ended, Patterson says that RWU has picked up some of the cost of running the program, mentioning “hidden costs” such as a boat, fuel, and student help. He said the program has also received funding from the Island Foundation and the CRMC. Patterson is pursuing other funding sources, promoting the environmental benefits shellfish restoration provides. In the meantime, Patterson envisions a fertile future for his oysters. Once they are large enough to spawn, the larvae will disperse by the millions, Patterson says, something that has not occurred in Rhode Island in years. In Massachusetts, “they just blanket everything,” and Patterson hopes these oysters will do the same in Rhode Island. “Mother Nature still grows a heck of an oyster, she just needs a little bit of a head start.” Aquaculture Efforts a Community Partnership for RWU Dale Leavitt, RWU assistant professor of marine and natural sciences, leads the project, which grows juvenile quahogs for transplant in Greenwich Bay, where the small animals grow to harvestable size. Due to health regulations, the juvenile quahogs are planted in areas that are closed to shellfishing for at least one year. In previous years, the animals were planted in Green River, but that area was reopened in 2007, so this year, the shellfishermen planted 500,000 quahogs in a closed management area off Sandy Point. These quahogs will not be harvested, but the area should serve as a spawning sanctuary for future populations. To track the success of the transplanted animals, Leavitt says the cultivated quahogs are of a strain that has distinctive shell markings (notata quahogs) that should help shellfishermen tell them apart from the other quahogs they harvest. And, Leavitt says, “they just opened up the area in Green River where we planted quahogs three years ago. The fishermen are reporting finding notata quahogs in their harvests!” Since arriving at RWU in 2004, Leavitt has also taught an annual 10- to 12-week class geared toward community residents interested in becoming shellfish farmers. Of the 15 to 20 people who have participated each year, he says that four to five have gone on to start their own businesses. Building on the initial RIAI grant, other funding sources, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service (funded through USDA), have helped the project to continue, and RWU has allowed Leavitt to dedicate 50 percent of his time to outreach, extension, and research activities. “Roger Williams University sees the value in that kind of a relationship with the community and they’re willing to support it,” Leavitt says, adding that the university has committed $3.5 million to building a shellfish hatchery, putting the project on the “fast track.” “This will be a nice facility for the state,” Leavitt says. Aquaculture Demonstration Center In the demonstration center’s main building, two green-houses were connected to fish tanks housing hybrid striped bass, where basil, raspberries, and cherry tomatoes were raised with nutrient-rich water piped from the tanks. In the center’s gardens, chili peppers and tomatoes were fertilized with fish waste. A pond houses koi year-round, and, in season, water garden plants. Those move to the greenhouse in the winter, where they have been fertilized by water recirculating through tanks with largemouth bass. Randy Mickley, former URI Cooperative Extension finfish specialist, said, “the center is designed to be an idea place where people interested in doing aquaculture as a business or as a supplement to their business can see examples of aquaculture that should be profitable.” Undergraduate aquaculture students maintain the pond and the demonstration center, which is open to visitors during the annual East Farm Day celebration in May or by appointment. Instant Information: Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Habitat Map Server Rhode Island’s waters are used for a number of purposes, including recreational boating and fishing, commercial fishing, shipping, military vessels, and research. Without careful planning and management, these uses can interfere with each other, creating situations that jeopardize commerce and safety. Identifying the uses of various areas of the state’s waters is the first step in addressing this issue, so that planners may ensure that all stakeholders are included in planning processes. With funding from URI Cooperative Extension and the RIAI, the CRMC working group on aquaculture and fisheries worked with the URI Environmental Data Center (EDC) to create maps showing where fishing and aquaculture take place in state waters. Subsequent maps were created to show public access and recreational uses and sediment types and distribution patterns in Narragansett Bay. Maps are available on-line as images that users may view and print (www.edc.uri.edu/fish/), or on an interactive map server (mapper.edc.uri.edu/website/rifish), where users can select data they would like to see displayed on the map. Christopher Damon, EDC research associate and the creator of the mapping application, reports that “a diversity of users, from fishermen to fish-eries biologists, have accessed the system to support their work in manage-ment of Narragansett Bay and Block Island Sound.” Project collaborators are the Ocean State Fishermen’s Association, RISA, the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association, the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association, the Ocean State Aquaculture Association, RWU’s Center for Economic and Environ-mental Development, URI Cooperative Extension, the URI Agricultural Experiment Station, the URI fisher-ies, animal and veterinary science department, Rhode Island Sea Grant, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, and CRMC. A Growing Education The project expanded beyond classroom discussions to include training high school students to teach younger students about shellfish, as well as offering students a field trip to Matunuck Oyster Farm where they could wade out into the water and see aquaculture operations first-hand. If time permitted, the students would perform daily maintenance tasks on the farm. Students also learned how shellfish aquaculture increases biodiversity, and were able to see an increased number of species in and around the shellfish aquaculture gear. The project, which reached over 3,000 students from 30 schools, brought some students to the oyster farm from inner-city schools who had never been in salt water before. Raso was able to show them things they had never seen, such as horseshoe crabs. “Some of these tough kids were overwhelmed by what they saw in the estuary,” he said, adding that when he presented his program in Hope High School and the Providence Met School, and students from those schools came to the oyster farm, “We were both out of our element, so it was kind of neat.” The project was funded for three years, but Raso was able stretch the funding to last four years, and has since worked with other groups, including the URI Office of Marine Programs and the Rhode Island Agricultural Education Coalition, to continue the educational efforts. He now tries to reach a broader public audience, as well as students, to teach them about the need for shellfish aquaculture and its environmental impacts as well as to promote agritourism by having more people out to visit the farm. Raso greets groups at East Matunuck Beach, and talks to them about Block Island Sound, the barrier beach and dunes, Succotash Salt Marsh, Potters Pond estuary, and finally aquaculture. He offers a land-based introduction to the gear he uses, and a touch tank of some of the species found in the estuary. The groups then wade out to the farm for a first-hand look at the aquaculture operation. Raso has also served as a mentor to URI Coastal Fellows, who participate in coastal research and outreach projects that offer intensive hands-on learning. Annually, a Coastal Fellow who is interested in aquaculture works at the oyster farm, an arrangement initially funded by the RIAI and now, because the Coastal Fellows have proved to be good workers, by the farm itself. “This works out good for the farm, and it works out good for the student who is interested in aquaculture,” Raso says. In addition, Raso set up an aquaculture system at Cranston West High School where students grow both shellfish and the algae to feed them through a trickle-tray system. And he brings students from different schools to Matunuck in the spring and fall for beach cleanups as part of service-learning projects. Raso recently began taking education efforts to the market along with his oysters—this past season sharing space at the Coastal Growers farmer’s market at Casey Farm in North Kingstown, R.I., with, among others, produce farmers, a cheesemaker, and a bakery. His table includes a display showing the different aquaculture operations in the state and the different types of gear that he and other shellfish farmers use. Raso says he hopes to increase people’s understanding of shellfish aquaculture so that they can make better-informed decisions regarding aquaculture and aquacultured products. —Monica Allard Cox is Communications Manager for Rhode Island Sea Grant.
|
Rhode
Island Sea Grant |
Coastal Institute |