Poster at Fish and Wildlife Conference Shell Recycling-- B&G Oyster Event

Oyster Shell Recycling at the Oyster Invitational

A great spring time event is the B&G Oysters Oyster Invitational. It is a fun filled festival of bivalves with shucking contests, new oyster concoctions, a raffle, and oysters from around the world. Barbara Lynch's crew have made this a watershed seafood event that is a harbinger of Summer. The event will be held on May 1st at their 550 Tremont Street llocation. If you love oysters- this could be the event for you- as it has ALL YOU CAN EAT OYSTERS.  If you attend you might win a Mass Oyster Project windbreaker that is the must have item for coastal fashionistas this year.

MOP will be taking an exciting step forward at this event as we will begin oyster shell recycling.  The oyster shells will be collected in used as a framework for growing tiny new oysters (spat.) Spat on shell tends to survive better than loose oysters. This is our first foray into this type of program. We will seek to expand from this pilot as we move into 2012. One of the challenges is finding a spot where we can store shell as any remnants of the previous occupants dry up and fall off. (This can have a bit of an odor.) If  you have a rural location where we could store a truckload of shell this winter as it dries, please email us by clicking on this link. massoysterproject

One of our interns Shira Bleicher, a freshman student at Wellesely College will be presenting a poster at the North East Fish and Wildlife Conference in Manchester, NH. The conference runs from Sunday through Tuesday.

Her poster discusses preliminary results for her study to look at predation and the effectiveness of various methodologies  for minimizing it. The preliminary or interim results are largely relating to the affects of winter cold on our experimental population.

She is going on to Mount Desert Island Biological Labs this Summer. Entrance to the Maine program is quite competitive and she will focus on eelgrass with mentors Dr. Jane Disney and George Kidder.  She willl be writing proposals and final scientific papers, as well as giving presentations and participating in community outreach efforts. 

Congratulations Shira- bundle up this summer. Those Maine nights get cool!