Shellfish Lab Highlights

Shellfish Lab Production

Shellfish Lab Seed Survival % and average size (mm)

Shellfish Visitors

Shellfish Aquaculture Glossary

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Project Summary

2008 Summer Interns at the Harwich Shellfish Lab
carry on a Program of Environmental Tradition to reseed
the beds and Give our Quahogs a "Fighting Chance"

 

Since 1994, the Town of Harwich has had a shellfish propagation facility located at Wychmere Harbor.  Each year, from May through October, the Natural Resources Department has been busy rearing primarily hard clams, but over the years has also grown softshell clams, mussels, and oysters.

 

In 1998, we began a cooperative Natural Resource Department and Harwich High School summer aquaculture internship.  Selected high school students, along with a teaching supervisor, were given the opportunity to assist with the daily operations of the lab providing a very unique working and learning environment.

Petri dish showing healthy 3 mm size mercenaria notata being reared in Harwich Upweller system.Press picture for interim report.

 

The Harwich Shellfish Aquaculture Internship program:

 

• Provides an educational, working platform for high school students to experience an aquaculture facility and take a vested interest in a local natural resource.

 

• Teaches students the importance of organization, scientific data recording, attention to detail, responsibility, and field biology in an aquaculture environment.

 

• Expands public awareness of the shellfish lab through public access, tours, and presentations.

 

• Increases the total supply of shellfish available for seeding into local shellfishing waters the optimal operation of the shellfish nursery system and the widespread distribution of the juvenile stock.

 

This educational partnership is significantly beneficial for both the students and the shellfish propagation lab; students receive summer employment while taking part in an operating aquaculture facility while the Natural Resources Department is able to monitor, maintain, and operate the shellfish lab at a level previously unattainable.

 

Student interns are administered a pre-internship and post-internship evaluation quiz (same quiz).  The evaluation covers shellfish aquaculture, data collection, and other relative subject matter.  Students assimilate a great deal of information during the six week program and are able to demonstrate that knowledge at the completion of the program.

Harwich students learn about invertebrates through husbandry and research. Clean tanks and silos are essential for controling competing organisms, tunicates as sea squirts and filamentous algae.Press picture to read about tunicates.

 

They are also required to keep two sets of logbooks for the duration of the program.  One is the daily shellfish log (work completed), and the second is the lab tank data logbook in which water temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen readings are recorded.

 

Students are also responsible for giving presentations and tours to the visiting public and record those on a running tally board.

 

Exposing Students to an aquaculture facility, teaching them how it operates, and educating the public goes beyond just measuring growth rates, number of shellfish reared, percent survival and amount seeded.  These students may not become professional aquaculturists, however, they all become more environmentally aware and natural resource conscious as a result of the program.

 

This program is funded through the Natural Resources Department and has received supplemental funding from the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, Cape Cod Economical Development Council, Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, and the Division of Marine Fisheries.

 

More information can be obtained from the Natural Resources Department located at Saquatucket Harbor or via phone at 508-430-7532. Ask for Heinz Proft.

A healthy clam is our most important product. We find adjustable gardenia nozzle the most controlable "water gun" to wash down tiny clams removing daily buildup of pseudo-feces, breaking up bysal mats and cleaning healthy slime from screens.