Ask Wayne Turner what the three Es mean to the Westport Bay Scallop Restoration Project and he's likely to tell you Economy, Education, and Enthusiasm. But what he may not tell you is that the third E also means Environment. Turner, a biologist and president of the Water Works Group, Inc., which spawned the Bay Scallop Restoration Project in January 1993, is convinced that if you get people excited about making a difference in their community, environmental good will come.
By: Malia Schwartz, Rhode Island Sea Grant
Tracey I. Crago, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant.
Located in southeastern Massachusetts in the town of Westport and lying adjacent to Rhode Island, the Westport River estuary was once touted as one of the most productive commercial shellfishing areas on the south coast of Massachusetts. Annual yields of bay scallops, oysters, quahogs, and soft-shell clams supported many Westport shellfishermen and their families. "Just look around the docks," says Turner. "Notice all the pickup trucks? Most of those trucks are 1985 models. That was the last good year we had for scallops."
Since those prosperous years, however, Westport shellfish harvests have declined significantly, and the town's commercial shellfishing industry has been hurt dramatically. While some shellfish, such as quahogs, oysters, and soft-shell clams, are still plentiful, they have been unharvestable in most of the estuary since 1978, when bacterial contamination caused the first shellfish bed closure. By the 1980s, more than 3,000 of the estuary's 3,225 acres were closed to shellfishing.
The Westport River estuary has suffered steadily declining water quality since 1978. Despite the town's efforts to reverse this trend, water quality has continued to decline. Storm water runoff, obsolete septic systems, and poor agriculture practices have been cited as the major causes of poor water quality. Several years ago, Turner and several concerned citizens of Westport - later to become the Water Works Group - came together in an effort to focus public attention on the continuing decline of water quality in the estuary. Because of its economic value and universal appeal, the bay scallop was the group's choice for a vehicle to attract resources and attention. "It was our hope to restore the scallop (population) as an economic incentive for cleaning up the Westport River," said Turner. Unlike other shellfish, scallops can be harvested even in closed shellfish beds because the only portion that is eaten is the prominent adductor muscle - the muscle that closes the scallop's shell - not the viscera, where contaminants tend to accumulate. Consequently, even amid large-scale shellfish bed closures, Westport scallopers in 1985 harvested 66,000 bushels of bay scallops worth over $2 million.
The Westport River estuary had historically supported a thriving commercial industry for scallops, but a continuing issue for scallopers in Westport - and throughout the bay scallop's range - was the unreliability of the scallop harvest from year to year. "In a good year, scallopers could make half of their year's pay in the two-to-three-month scallop season," says Turner. "But since the late '60s, it's been boom-and-bust years." This was one problem the restoration project hoped to change. For this, they turned to the University of Rhode Island (URI) for assistance. Turner, along with Scott Soares, former project manager of the Water Works Group, and Robert Edgcomb, chairman of the board, approached Rhode Island Sea Grant aquaculture specialist Michael Rice and his graduate student Karin Tammi to explore methods of enhancing natural stocks of scallops in the estuary.
*** Want to know what happens in A Year In The Life of a Bay Scallop? ***
One idea that Rice and Tammi wanted to try was use of artificial spat collectors as an artificial settlement substrate for juvenile scallops (spat). This popular aquaculture technique has been used extensively in Japan for raising many types of shellfish. Under normal conditions, juvenile scallops prefer to settle on eelgrass, but poor water quality has made eelgrass in the estuary scarce. By substituting the artificial spat collectors - in this case, onion bags filled with monofilament line - Tammi was able to increase the setting surface area for juveniles.
But to have juvenile scallops, you need adult brood scallops to spawn, and finding the adults was not easy. "In that first year (summer of 1993), we trawled the whole estuary looking for adult scallops to use for brood stock," remembers Tammi. "We found less than a bushel. We ended up borrowing about 200 adult brood scallops from the town of Marion, Mass., to put in the spawner rafts." The floating spawner rafts were used to encourage mass spawning of the adults in a small area. The rafts were then placed in several different locations in the estuary historically known to be good scallop beds.
The researchers then watched for signs of spawning. Using a technique devised by Rice, Tammi, and Robert Rheault, president of Spatco - a small-scale aquaculture company that produces oysters and scallops in Rhode Island - they observed the ripening of the scallop gonad as it increased in size, altered shape, and changed color from black to bright orange, indicating that the scallop was ready to spawn. By monitoring gonad maturation, along with a rise in water temperature above 20 C and the appearance of larvae in the water, the researchers were able to note when spawning took place. From this, they knew that larval settlement was only two to three weeks away.
Numerous volunteers from the town and students from area schools constructed the spat collector lines from donated materials and placed them in nine different locations in the estuary. They wanted to determine whether scallops would set on the artificial substrate and to learn which sites were best for scallop recruitment.
Success Measured in Scallops
and Scientific InsightThe results were encouraging, both for project researchers and the town of Westport. In September 1993, over 4,000 seed scallops were collected by the restoration project. Most of these scallops would be used the following summer as brood stock for the project. In addition, after a 10-year hiatus from selling recreational scalloping permits, Westport issued 23 recreational permits and one commercial permit that season. Combined, scallopers harvested 35 bushels of legal-sized bay scallops, according to Gary Sherman, Westport shellfish constable.
And Tammi, Turner, and Soares learned several lessons from that first summer: (1) bay scallops will settle on artificial spat collectors (see figure below); (2) Corey's Island appeared to be the most important site for scallop recruitment; and (3) fouling and predation on and in spat bags necessitates more accurate pinpointing of the timing of settlement in the estuary.
With this information, the researchers turned their sights on the next summer. They decided to narrow their focus to five of the original nine sites deemed most productive for bay scallops according to historical data and results from the 1993 season. They concentrated their efforts in the waters around Corey's Island, as well as Canoe Rock, Jug Rock, Hicks Cove, and Horseneck Channel.
For the 1994 season, the restoration project once again enlisted hundreds of volunteers to assist in constructing and placing spat collectors at each of the five sites in the estuary. With program development fund support from the Rhode Island and Woods Hole Sea Grant programs, Tammi worked with Turner and Soares to try to zero in on the optimum time to deploy the spat collectors so that the time- and labor-intensive job of placing the collectors in the estuary could be minimized in the future. They placed their lines in the water at weekly intervals from June through August, and removed each line 30 days after it had been deployed. This method also allowed Tammi and Turner to investigate when fouling and predation on and in the spat bags was most prevalent.
By combining the 1993 data on gonad maturation, larval abundance, and monthly scallop set with their second-year data, and by using a more rigorous scientific approach, they were able to come to several interesting conclusions. First, gonad maturation indicated that the Westport bay scallop's major spawn occurs in late June. And while focusing on the scallop spawn, the researchers noted four distinct peaks in larval abundance that occur during the summer months, which led them to believe that each peak probably represents different spawning events for each bivalve shellfish species found in the estuary.
Once again, for the people of Westport, it was a banner year for scallops. The town had issued 17 commercial permits at $100 each and 73 recreational permits at $25 each. Combined, scallopers harvested more than 330 bushels, bringing in much-needed revenue to the town, notes Sherman. The restoration project also had a good year for scallops. They collected over 7,000 seed scallops to use as spawning stock for the 1995 season.
Building on the two previous years of research, the restoration project looked to the 1995 season to confirm previous findings. "After three years, we can now make predictions," says Tammi. "We now know how they spawn, when they spawn, when they settle, and when the season is over." According to the Bay Scallop Restoration Project 1995 Research Executive Summary, "...by knowing when bay scallop larvae are in high volumes, coupled with precise gonadal index information, the window of opportunity for development of spat bag larval monitoring equipment is determined. Results of our research in 1993 and 1994 have suggested that premature deployment of spat bags causes heavy fouling and increased predation, and consequently, low spat recruitment."
Along with bay scallop settlement, predation in spat bags has become a major focus for the restoration project. In 1994, it became apparent that many of the scallops that had settled in the bags were being eaten by mud crabs, as well as other small crabs. "The crab larvae settle into the spat bags at approximately the same time as the scallop larvae, and grow with the scallops, munching along the way," says Rice.
Last summer, Tammi and Turner, assisted by intern Bart Harrison, an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, tried an experiment. At the Corey's Island site, they deployed spat lines that alternated a new "Korean bag" with their traditional spat bag. While more expensive, the Korean bag, so named because of its popularity in raising shellfish in Korea, has a smaller mesh size compared to the onion bag the researchers had been using. In theory, the mesh would be too small to allow newly settled crabs in, but would still allow scallops to set. The results: significantly less mortality due to predation at the Corey's Island site.
The study also revealed some important information on fouling, according to Harrison. Results indicated that three types of algae were causing most of the fouling on the spat bags. "From our study," said Harrison, "it appears that there isn't much of an effect on the scallops in the short-term deployments - up to one month - but, bags that had been in the water for over one month and up to three months looked like shag rugs when we pulled them out of the water." The biggest fouling culprit is a green seaweed, Enteromorpha. Other fouling seaweeds include Cladophora and Sphacelaria. "In combination with the algae, we found that sediment was causing fouling too, in between the mesh," Harrison said. "The Korean bags fouled even more (than the onion bags) - twice as much, in fact. But," he said, "when we counted scallops, there were four times as many!" Harrison and Tammi concluded that, while the fouling is not having a detrimental effect on the scallops' ability to settle, heavy fouling on bags left in for longer periods may cause scallop growth to be stunted or may result in other deformities.
Over the course of three years, Tammi and Turner have made other interesting discoveries as well. For example, they have been able to identify spawning peaks for other commercially important shellfish, such as the blue mussel and soft-shell clam; and they now think the reason scallops will settle in spat bags is that the bags have a film on them that might mimic eelgrass. Says Rice, "We've got a lot of good technical information about the timing of spawning and settlement, the type of spat bags that work best, and the magnitude of mortality. We also now know that predation is a major factor in scallop recruitment."
E for Education
The hands-on nature of the project's scientific component makes it easy to share with students, which is just what Turner and Tammi have done. In fact, it is the project's educational element - referred to as the Living Laboratory - that is a big selling point for the scallop restoration project, according to Turner. "By focusing, initially, on the bay scallop we can offer students of all ages something tangible - a chance to apply textbook formulas to 'real world' problems."
Hands-on science is nothing new to Margaret Brumsted, Dartmouth High School marine science teacher. Brumsted was named 1995 "Science Teacher of the Year." Her involvement in the Westport scallop project - and that of her students - is just one remarkable example of the educational benefits Turner speaks of.
Brumsted's students are, in fact, part of the tally of students - 5,700 to date - that have gotten their feet wet and their hands dirty learning about the scallop restoration effort. After volunteering for the project in the summer of 1993, Brumsted decided to involve her students as a way to enhance her marine science curriculum. "The timing was perfect," Brumsted recalls. "It was a good way to start the school year."
At about the same time, Brumsted learned of a Toyota grant program, Toyota's Appreciation Program for Excellence to Science Teachers Reaching Youth (TAPESTRY), administered through the National Science Teachers Association. The $10,000 grants are awarded annually for innovative science projects that enhance science education. "The more I read (about the grant program), the more I realized how perfect the scallop project would be," recalled Brumsted. "Over 800 proposals were submitted, and we were one of 40 funded."
As part of the 1994-95 TAPESTRY grant, Brumsted and Turner designed an in-depth program that would investigate the Dartmouth portion of the Westport River watershed. Students designed a booklet on the river's "critters," conducted plankton samples and water quality testing, studied the impacts of land use, zoning, aquifers, and soil types on the watershed, designed a field sampling program, harvested the spat bags, counted and measured scallops and crabs, and quantified the biofouling (algae and tiny invertebrate growth) on the spat bags. In other work related to the project, students studied the Westport River food web, different propagation techniques, predation, the life cycle of the bay scallop, fecal coliform and pollution, and groundwater.
Since the TAPESTRY grant, Brumsted has continued to involve students in the project. "I've added one important component to the program that involves the school computer lab," she said. "Students take a portion of the data generated by the project and analyze it, graph it, and put it into spreadsheet programs. Once they've got results, I require them to write it up like a scientific paper. It's hard," she admitted, "but it makes them realize that statistics and data must be analyzed. In other words, you've got to have some proof before people will believe you when you tell them that there are more scallops in the river as a result of the restoration project."
In addition to students from Brumsted's marine science course, students from Westport Middle School, Phillips Andover Academy, Bishop Connolly School, and a high school class from Peterboro, N.H., have participated in the project. Several of these students have continued their interest and involvement in various aspects of the project. Furthermore, URI students enrolled in Kathleen Castro's introductory fisheries science course have also participated in the project. Castro, a URI instructor, also serves as Rhode Island Sea Grant Marine Advisory Service Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Seafood Program coleader.
Westport Project to Go Online
Jessica LaBaugh is one student who took part in the project through Brumsted's marine science class last year. Now a senior at Dartmouth High School, she is working on an independent study project with Brumsted and Tammi. As part of the independent study, LaBaugh wrote a fact sheet about the natural history and biology of bay scallops and various propagation techniques. She is also designing a World Wide Web site that will incorporate information on aquaculture, bay scallops, the Bay Scallop Restoration Project, propagation methods, and similar projects in Korea and Japan. The site has the potential to introduce the Westport project to millions of online users.
CNN Video Contest Winners
Equally inspiring are the efforts of five Westport High School students. Their video documentary on the scallop project recently earned them a first place finish in the Northeast regional division of Cable News Network's "Student Video Journalist Challenge." The two-and-a-half minute video was created by the team of Michaela Doran, a sophomore, as producer; Annie Doran (Michaela's sister), a freshman, as writer/researcher; James Perry, a freshman, as cameraman; Dave Potter, a junior, as correspondent; and Andrew Sousa, a freshman, as editor. Each member had been exposed to the scallop project either as Westport Middle School students or as scouts.
The group's decision to feature the scallop project in the contest's hard news division was easy. "We wanted a topic that would incorporate people, the economy, and volunteers," said Perry. The scallop project fit the group's criteria. "We thought it would be good to show how the project affects the whole community," said Sousa. "The more the scallop population grows, the more money it will mean for the town." "We spent a lot of time on the video," recalled Michaela Doran. "We shot more than four-and-a-half hours of video and spent every day after school and weekends on the project," Perry added.
The team made use of the school's equipment to document the project, its purpose, methodology, and its impact on Westport and the watershed. While only Perry had any prior experience with the television equipment, the group credits Westport High School communications teacher Michael Davis for helping them make sense of it. "The editing was tough, but he gave us a lot of help," said Potter. "We took a lot of footage from boats, the beach, and on shore," said Annie Doran. "The hardest part was trying to match the shots with the script."
While the group's experience with the project helped them decide what they wanted to say, showing it proved challenging. Sousa agreed. "Trying to squeeze all four hours into two-and-a-half minutes was hard."
Fundraising and Grant Writing
The students are not the only ones who are learning the importance of the project's restoration efforts. Volunteers of all ages, backgrounds, and talents have contributed over 83,000 hours to the project. As an example, wood shop students from Westport High School built spawner rafts for the project using materials donated by local businesses. Such enthusiasm - and efforts - have translated into an incredible cost savings to the project. Turner's valuation of volunteer efforts: over $750,000.
These savings have allowed for a lean operating budget - currently $126,000 a year. At that level, the Water Works Group supports a modest staff - Turner and Tammi as full-time employees, and a graduate student - Bethany Starr, who currently works for the group, hopes to begin her graduate work at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography next fall. The budget also covers expenses, such as boats, vehicles, and equipment. A large portion of this budget comes from fundraising. The most successful - and lucrative - fundraising effort to date has been sale of Water Works Group "stock." How, one might wonder, does a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization sell shares of stock? "Very quickly," according to Turner, who came up with the clever concept. For 25 tax-deductible dollars, investors can own a share in the Water Works Group. In turn, they receive an attractive, frameable prospectus. In the two years they have been offered, the stock certificates have raised $45,000.
Bob Edgcomb explains why the group decided against membership, opting, instead, for stockholders: "We felt that our kids and grandkids should realize that natural resources are much more valuable than stock in IBM or many other large corporations. Offering the certificates and prospectus is an excellent opportunity to provide dividends," explained Edgcomb. The group's most recent dividends - a copy of the annual report and a guided boat tour for stockholders, allowing them to see the project's field sites and to observe students in action - are, says Edgcomb, "worth a lot more than the 4 to 5 percent that shares on the New York Stock Exchange are earning."
Another successful fundraiser was made possible by the Westport Rivers Vineyard and Winery. The winery sponsors events to "promote the preservation of working natural resources," said Bob Russell who, along with his wife Carol, owns the vineyard. In 1994, they selected the Water Works Group to receive the proceeds from their "1994 Celebrate Chardonnay" event.
Grants and contracts are additional sources of income for the group. Besides Sea Grant support, staff have received grants from the Northeast Regional Aquaculture Association, The Sound Conservancy, Inc., the Quebec/Labrador Foundation, Westport Planning Board, area schools, and a number of private foundation grants. And more recently, the project was awarded the Secretaries' Award for Excellence in Environmental Education by Trudy Coxe, secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Environmental Affairs.
Other Scallop Projects Cropping
Up in the NortheastIn Clinton, Conn., they're trying something new - raising scallops under marina docks. In a pilot study funded by Connecticut Sea Grant, 6,000 bay scallop seed, provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) lab in Milford, Conn., were put into Durathene small-mesh bags and placed on shelves in several wire cages suspended underneath an outer dock at Cedar Island Marina.
"The scallops used for the experiment were from various genetic lines selectively bred from native Connecticut scallops by NMFS scientists," explained Nancy Balcom, Connecticut Sea Grant extension educator. "The marina project provided them with another grow-out site to expand their ongoing growth and survival experiments, so it was a nice, timely collaboration between Sea Grant, NMFS, and Cedar Island Marina," she said. "The cages were pulled up monthly between July and December to measure scallop volume and shell height, and to look for mortality losses," explained Balcom. Seed scallops averaging 15.5 mm shell height were reared in different densities and different size mesh bags in the cages. "Survival averaged 90 percent, and the fastest growing scallops reached an average shell height of 54.1 mm by the end of November."
The idea for the experiment came from a pilot study conducted by New York Sea Grant in 1991 to assess the suitability of this type of aquaculture practice for Long Island marinas. In that study, researchers found a five-fold increase in average shell height and mortality losses of 19.5 percent. However, 60 percent of the scallops were lost from the nets and bags due to Hurricane Bob in August and two subsequent nor-easters later that season.
The results of Connecticut's 1995 study were encouraging. "The scallops grew very well, many reaching marketable size by early December," said Balcom. "Marinas have good potential as locations for intermediate grow-out of scallop seed - either as a step in intensive aquacultural production or in seed transplant efforts to restore scallop fisheries to natural habitats," said Matt Mroczka, research manager for the marina.
But a move toward commercial production is hampered because marina waters are classified as "prohibited" in terms of shellfish production, requiring a six-month relay period in open waters, explained Balcom. "However, this project has demonstrated the potential for good growth - where we go from here remains to be seen."
The coastal ponds of Narragansett Bay, R.I., are another place where there is some hope for scallop restoration. Arthur Ganz, aquaculture coordinator for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Estuarine Resources, has been tackling this issue since 1973. But until last year, funding for scallop restoration had become scarce. Last year, Ganz's group was awarded a two-year grant from Aquafund - a state fund, administered by the Narragansett Bay Commission, that supports environmental and habitat restoration and pollution abatement - to work toward bay scallop restoration in Rhode Island's coastal ponds. "Last summer, we purchased the seed, built our bottom cages to hold the juveniles, and now we're waiting to see how the scallops did over the winter," said Ganz. He hopes to begin trials with artificial spat collectors in the ponds this summer.
Ganz's group also shares ideas with the Water Works Group. "We have a long track record in raising scallops and we've tried various restoration methods, so we are able to offer suggestions to the folks in Westport on what we've found that works and what doesn't," explained Ganz. One big difference that Ganz has found, however, is that the floating spawner rafts that work so well in Westport are not feasible in Rhode Island. "We have big vandalism problems with the floating cages." Ganz believes that there is a big difference between Rhode Island and Westport in people's attitudes toward any form of aquaculture. "People vandalize the rafts because they don't want us to stock scallops in the area."
Community Support Key to Success
One of the keys to the success of the bay scallop restoration project in Westport - and other projects of its kind - lies in the support the project receives from the community. "People involved in the scallop project now have a much better appreciation for the research aspect," said Rice. This understanding and appreciation spread as volunteers and members of the community educate friends and colleagues about the goals and progress of the restoration effort and what they can do to help.
"This project has galvanized the community in talking about aquaculture in Westport and in reestablishing fisheries," said Rice. "This is important, especially in Massachusetts, where the doctrine of 'home rule' or local management of coastal resources is in place. Local attitudes toward aquaculture will strongly influence the development of coastal projects, whether public or private."
Improved water quality, re-opened shellfishing areas, community involvement - all goals of the Water Works Group - have made the restoration project a big success story in Westport. According to the group's 1995 executive summary, "The pioneering research of the restoration project has left real and lasting impacts on several fronts, namely: 1) advanced research on shellfish propagation and, 2) the development of 'real world' educational endeavors with local schools which instill ownership and commitment by providing unequaled opportunities for the students, the schools, and the community."
But founders of the project are convinced there is more work to be done, more goals to accomplish, and more ways to share what they've learned with other towns. "We believe that this experiment in education, economics, and enthusiasm works - and can work in other communities - and that local support, embellished by the technical leadership of graduate students, is the key to the success of these endeavors," said Turner.
Malia Schwartz is Assistant Communications Director for Rhode Island Sea Grant.
Tracey I. Crago is Communicator for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant.