Saturday, March 30, 2013

Pipers, Puffins and the Future of Our Harbor

 
One of the interesting things about being involved in Massachusetts estuaries and Boston Harbor in particular is learning of the life that teems within it, as well as the tremendous potential of it that is still unrealized. We have forgotten what Boston Harbor can be. 

In this blog before we have commented on the lone Atlantic Sturgeon spotted in the locks at the Charles and oystercatchers in Winthrop. But there is even more happening.
Tiny Piping Plovers blend in with the sand.


Piping Plovers appear to be returning to Winthrop and Revere. While the news of these adorable birds may be disconcerting news for dog walkers since it restricts canine access to the beaches, it is exciting to here of them in Winthrop and Revere.  

We are also hearing rumors of puffins on the Harbor Islands.  Below we post a picture of a Puffin off of Gloucester from the Boston harbor tours web-site. If you have information or pictures please send them to us. 


Photo: So lucky to have snapped a pic of this rare Atlantic Puffin sighting yesterday just 3 miles offshore of Gloucester! 

Share your ideas of what you think this Puffin is on the lookout for! 
Puffin Sighted off Gloucester By Boston Harbor Tours in January




Lets look forward a few years. How long will it before we have ospreys or even eagles on the islands? While I am sure Logan airport may not be thrilled about raptors. It is interesting to think about what could be. Squam Lake, NH has built a mini-tourism industry around the bald eagle nest and nesting loons. If we add biodiversity to Boston Harbor, even more tourists will come with the ancillary benefits to our economy.  

Below is the official DCR notice of the Piping Plovers.

Help Protect the Piping Plovers Returning to MA Beaches
 
WHAT:           The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) advises residents that the piping plover, a rare species of bird, has begun the spring return to Massachusetts beaches for nesting season. DCR and Mass Audubon work together to protect and conserve these plovers—a species so rare that it’s protected under both the Massachusetts and Federal Endangered Species Act—on our state beaches. Beachgoers can share the area with these beautiful birds and following a few tips can help keep the nesting birds and their young safe:
·         Please stay out of marked areas where plovers are nesting.
·         Keep in mind that dogs are not allowed on the beach between April 1 and September 30.
·         Watched out for piping plover eggs and chicks, as their size and coloring allows them to be easily lost against the sandy landscape. Their nests are also highly vulnerable to the actions of people and pets.
Successful early nesting is best for the piping plover, as it may allow the birds to leave the beaches early to begin their migration to less populated areas. Please be aware of your surroundings on any of DCR’s beaches or shore reservations this summer season.


WHEN:           Piping Plover Season begins April 1
                        Dogs are not allowed on the beaches April 1 – September 30
 
WHERE:

Revere Beach Reservation
Revere Beach Boulevard
Revere, MA
 
                       
Winthrop Shore Reservation
Winthrop Shore Drive
Winthrop, MA
 


If you have any questions or to report an issue, please contact: dcr.updates@state.ma.us or Dept. of Conservation & Recreation, Office of Public Outreach, 251 Causeway Street, Suite 600, Boston, MA  02114; Tel:(617)-626-4974
For more information on coastal bird conservation, please see www.massaudubon.org/cwp or contact Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program, at coastalbirds@massaudubon.org

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Maine Shellfish Aquaculture Course Enrolling Now


If you are interested, this facility and faculty have a terrific reputation. I wish I could go and learn more about raising oysters. Come to think of it, I do feel a flu coming on....


Techniques in Shellfish Aquaculture
SMS 309/598
Darling Marine Center
June 17-21, 2013

Techniques in Shellfish Aquaculture is a one week residential course where participants explore the theory and practice of marine bivalve aquaculture as practiced in the northeastern
United States. This is an intense, “hands-on” class with strong laboratory and field methods components.
Topics covered include:

reproductive biology
genetics
algal culture
larval rearing
shellfish pathology
site selection
water quality
ecological impacts

For more information, contact:
Linda Healy, Events Coordinator
Darling Marine Center
(207) 563-3146
lhealy@maine.edu
or
Dr. Chris Davis, Instructor
School of Marine Sciences
(207) 832-1075
cdavis@midcoast.com
or
Dr. Anne Langston
Aquaculture Research Institute
(207) 356-2982
anne.langston@umit.maine.edu



Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Shell Recycling Growing Drakes Bay Oyster Farm Pot Still Boils



Participation in the Oyster Shell Recycling Program Continues to Grow

John Nagle, a seafood wholesaler has involved MOP in the Boston Seafood Festival and been a general supporter. The company has also put its intention into action by saving shell for recycling. Sunday we picked up a batch of shell which is in transit to our reprocessing facility.

oyster restoration supporter John Nagle Fish Wholesaler
Oyster Restoration Supporter and Shell Recycling Participant


John Nagle Co., a full-line wholesaler of fresh and frozen seafood, was founded in 1887 by John J. Nagle. Since then, four generations of the Nagle family have upheld their strong commitment to family traditions and values within the seafood industry. The founder’s great-grandson, Charles Nagle, is the company’s current president.



Drakes Bay Oyster Farm Pot Continues to Boil

It was disappointing when the National Parks Service issued an edict shutting down the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm putting 31 people out of work.  An oyster farm has minimal environmental impact and many benefits.  But the shut down is continuing to give other groups pause as it is establishing a precedent that could be applicable to agricultural usage of public lands across the west. Many farmers graze cattle on federal lands, if the Interior Department decides similarly that these lands should be returned to the pristine state, then they can unilaterally close other areas.

Part 1. Below is a letter from the California Farm Bureau Federation President.

President's message: Why the Drakes Bay Oyster case matters
Issue Date: March 20, 2013

Paul Wenger. President, CFBF

Last week, the California Farm Bureau Federation, the Marin County Farm Bureau and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau joined in a petition to a federal appeals court, urging the court to give the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. a new hearing—and a new chance to continue its sustainable aquaculture operation.

The company and its owners, Kevin and Nancy Lunny, carry on a decades-long tradition of mariculture in Drakes Estero. The oyster farming operation has been there since the 1930s—so long that few people remember the estero before the farm existed. It was there long before the Point Reyes National Seashore was established in 1960.

Despite a record as excellent stewards of the land and of the estero, the Lunnys and their farm face eviction. The National Park Service determined that the oyster farm had to go and pulled out all the stops in its efforts to evict the farm, even though its presence adds to the overall character of the area. The Lunnys, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Farm Bureau and other advocates have pointed out a long history of shoddy, slanted pseudo-science used by the Park Service in an effort to justify removing the oyster farm.

Despite protests from the West Marin community, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided last November that the farm would have to leave when its lease expired. Only a last-minute stay from a federal court last month allowed the Lunnys to remain in business, while the court considers their appeal.

If you've been following the case like I have, you know that Drakes Bay Oyster Co. is a prime example of the local, sustainable agriculture that many Bay Area residents prize. If you haven't been following the case, you might be surprised by the range of individuals, groups and organizations that joined together in the petition last week on behalf of the Lunnys.

Along with CFBF and the two county Farm Bureaus, the petitioners included famed Berkeley chef Alice Waters; the Hayes Street Grill, a fish restaurant in San Francisco; the Tomales Bay Oyster Co.; the Marin County agricultural commissioner; Food Democracy Now; Marin Organic; and the Alliance for Local Sustainable Agriculture. These folks may all come at this issue from different angles, but we end up at the same place: What's happening to the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. is wrong.
 
The petition was written by Judith Teichman, a San Francisco attorney who assembled the coalition favoring the farm's continued operation. It notes that closing down Drakes Estero as a source of fresh, sustainably raised shellfish would wreak havoc with the world-famous local, sustainable food and agriculture of the Bay Area. It would also disrupt shellfish cultivation on Tomales Bay. It would put 31 people out of work, some of whom have worked for the oyster farm for 30 years.

Closing the oyster company would also be a serious setback for modern environmental thinking, the petition says. Leading voices in the environmental movement have called for 21st century conservationists to embrace a more people-friendly ethic that supports working landscapes—just the sort of operation that Drakes Bay Oyster Co. represents. Old-fashioned environmental activists want to force people off the land, to return it to some sort of pre-human condition. That thinking leads to confrontation instead of collaboration, and to situations where progressive, thoughtful farmers and ranchers like the Lunnys get pushed aside because of someone's interpretation of the purity of nature.
 
For Farm Bureau, the case has implications beyond Drakes Estero.

Half of the land in California is owned by the federal or state government. Rural communities, where many Farm Bureau members live and work, depend on multiple use of these lands. National parks and wilderness areas operate under land-management rules that allow for human presence and use, even when the primary mandate is for preservation and environmental protection.

To ban an operation such as Drakes Bay Oyster Co. on the ideological belief that it should not exist in a national park or wilderness area—despite evidence that the farm provides important economic, cultural and social benefits—sets an awful precedent for everyone who believes that humans and nature can and must co-exist sustainably.

That's why Farm Bureau supports the Lunnys and Drakes Bay Oyster Co. If the bureaucrats and the kick-the-humans-out branch of environmentalism can run the Lunnys out, you can bet they'll keep trying to throttle more wise uses of taxpayer-owned lands.

That narrow, preservationist vision never worked and doesn't now. The appeals court will hear the oyster farm's case in May, and we hope it will restore common sense to the management of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm BureauFederation when reprinting this item.



Part 2. Washington Getting Involved

Politicians are noticing that the bureaucracy may have deviated from popular opinion in the Drakes Bay situation and are getting involved. Ironically, a provision that would allow for the oyster farm to continue operation for 20 years has been embedded into a bill that is generally not environmentally friendly.The following article was published in the online version of the Santa Rosa, California Press Democrat.  The parent of today's Press Democrat, was begun in 1857, just three years after Santa Rosa was chosen as the seat of Sonoma County and seven years after California became a part of the United States.


By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A Republican bill in Congress intended to boost jobs and tax revenue through expanded offshore oil drilling, approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and other measures also would allow Drakes Bay Oyster Co. to stay in business, saving 30 jobs on the Marin County coast.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who introduced the legislation in the Senate, said in a written statement that it would create 2 million jobs and generate more than $2 trillion in federal taxes over the next 30 years by "increasing access to our domestic resources."Vitter's measure would open closed areas of the continental shelf to oil and gas leasing, allow energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and expedite approval of the $7 billion pipeline carrying Canadian heavy crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries.
 
The final section of the bill, titled the Energy Production and Project Delivery Act of 2013, would grant the oyster company in the Point Reyes National Seashore a permit for up to 20 years.
It also says that the 2,500-acre estero "shall not be converted to a designated wilderness," apparently reversing the intent established by Congress in 1976. 

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, whose district includes Point Reyes, called the bill "an environmental wrecking ball." Huffman, who sits on the House Natural Resources Committee, noted that the bill also would prohibit California from limiting Central Valley Project water deliveries based on the Endangered Species Act. Huffman said he found it "pretty surprising" that the oyster company's permit was included in a bill focused on much larger issues.
 
Kevin Lunny, operator of the embattled oyster farm on Drakes Estero, said Thursday that he did not ask for and was not advised of the bill's reference to his permit, a source of controversy for years in Marin County.
"It's what members of Congress do, I guess," Lunny said. "We didn't know it was coming."
Lunny is fighting in federal court a National Park Service order to shut down his business, which harvests $1.5 million worth of oysters a year from the estero.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear his appeal the week of May 13. His case is being handled without charge by a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, Cause of Action, whose executive director previously worked for a charitable foundation run by one of the billionaire Koch brothers, known for their conservative politics. Legal experts say the oyster farm case could set a precedent that promotes commercial use of national parks and wilderness areas throughout the western United States.
 
Huffman, a former environmental attorney, said that the Vitter bill and its backers are "bad company for Kevin and his supporters to keep." Co-sponsored by 22 other Republican senators, Vitter's bill is backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Western Business Roundtable, Americans for Limited Government and Americans for Prosperity.

"The whole bill is terrible," said Amy Trainer, executive director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, which has fought to remove the oyster farm from the Pacific Ocean estuary that is abundant in wildlife, including a harbor seal colony. Trainer and Huffman said the bill might win approval in the Republican-controlled House but not the Senate. Their concern is that some provisions might be separately tacked onto "must-pass" pieces of legislation.
 
Lunny said most of his support over the years has come from North Bay Democrats who favor sustainable agriculture.
 
"I've never had support from the Republicans," he said.

Lunny said he does not agree with all of the provisions in Vitter's bill, which was introduced in the House by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation subcommittee.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at  guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Classic Poem of Walrus and The Carpenter

For those with a more literary bent, here is a PowerPoint presentation of Lewis Carroll's classic poem "The Walrus and The Carpenter" - A classic tail of deceit.





Friday, March 22, 2013

Alabama Oysters Used To Study Impact of Oil Spill

This presentation contains information on a project using oysters to look at after affects of the BP oil spill.


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Oyster Shell Recycling Presentation

This presentation discusses an oyster shell recycling program in the Chesapeake Bay.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Massachusetts Shellfish Aquaculture Data

One of the questions that we have had trouble answering is 'how large is the oyster business in Massachusetts? Data has been surprisingly hard to find. 

A friend of MOP sent us a newspaper article with data on the industry. The data is from 2008 and it is fair to say that some growers have taken off since then such as Island Creek and Big Rock. There also are some wild caught oysters that don't fall into the aquaculture category. . These figures also may include some other types of shellfish. Our guess- the Mass oyster crop might be $9 million in 2012.



As we think about the industry, we should remember the other related jobs it supports from hatcheries, wholesalers, distributers, and equipment purveyors, etc. 

Monday, March 11, 2013

Ability of Oysters to Denitrify Chesapeake Bay Surprises Scientists.

One acre of the restored Shoal Creek reef in Virginia could remove 543 pounds of nitrogen in a year.


Researchers place trays of various oyster densities on a reef in a seaside intertidal zone of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. (Karl Blankenship)
Researchers place trays of various oyster densities on a reef in a seaside intertidal zone of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. (Karl Blankenship)
 
 
 


On a warm summer morning, Lisa Kellogg and her colleagues were racing with the tide. While the ocean water was low on the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore, her crew was scooping up the exposed oysters and sediment and placing them onto circular trays. They took care to ensure that any worms and other organisms burrowing in the sediment were part of the move, as well as any tiny mussels and clams latched onto the oyster shells. As best we can, we are trying to put back what was there when we showed up," said Kellogg, a researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.Then she stood on the edge of the tray to drive it into the sediment, making it as undistinguishable from the surrounding reef as possible. The hope was that when researchers returned to collect the tray in a month or so, it would appear as untouched as nearby reefs.

Kellogg's goal was to find out whether the oysters, and the vibrant community they support, would replicate a surprising discovery she made two years earlier on the Choptank River. Working on a reef in Shoal Creek, which had been restored by the Oyster Recovery Partnership in Maryland, she found an acre of reef could remove 543 pounds of nitrogen through denitrification in a year. That's the highest denitrification rate of any natural system documented in the Chesapeake, and one of the highest ever reported in a marine environment anywhere. 

"These rates are gigantic," said Jeffrey Cornwell, of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who collaborated on the study. But, he cautioned, "that is just one site."

Oysters have long been appreciated as powerful filterers that can clear algae from the water as they feed. But the fate of the nitrogen consumed with that algae has long been uncertain. Some of it is absorbed in the oyster shell and flesh where it is stored for varying amounts of time. But that storage isn't necessarily permanent as some of the nitrogen can be returned to the water when the oyster dies and its shell breaks down.

Denitrification, in contrast, is considered the gold standard for nitrogen removal. It converts the nutrient into harmless nitrogen gas, the most common element in the atmosphere. It's the process used at modern wastewater treatment plants to remove nitrogen from human wastes.

Denitrification takes place when bacteria living in the presence of free oxygen use aerobic processes to convert ammonia (a form of nitrogen) into nitrate. Then, bacteria living in anoxic (no oxygen) conditions use anaerobic processes to convert that nitrate into nitrogen gas, which returns to the atmosphere. Normally, denitrification takes place in the sediment where oxygenated and anoxic conditions are often found in close proximity. Earlier lab studies of denitrification associated with oysters had shown that a portion of the nitrogen in their excreted wastes was denitrified in the sediment, although the rates were not particularly high. But those studies just placed oyster wastes on sediment in the lab and measured the result. The Choptank work sought to characterize what was happening in the wild, and not just in the sediment, but also the entire reef. Kellogg, using a technique developed by Cornwell and Michael Owens, also of the Center for Environmental Science, was able to capture a portion of the reef community and the surrounding water column in a plastic container. Then, the scientists were able to measure the amount of nitrogen taken out of the water.


On the intertidal zone of the seaside, the oysters are exposed above the water for a portion of each day, then inundated as the tide comes up. (Karl Blankenship)
On the intertidal zone of the seaside, the oysters are exposed above the water for a portion of each day, then inundated as the tide comes up. (Karl Blankenship)





The difference was dramatic. "What happens in a square meter of oyster reef might be 30– or 40-fold more intense in terms of nutrient processing than in adjacent sediments," Cornwell said. The reason, the scientists think, is related to the complexity of the reef itself. Oyster reefs consist not only of oysters, but a wide variety of mussels, clams, arthropods and other organisms that live on the oysters or in the surrounding sediments. In the Choptank, the scientists found more than 24,000 organisms of 1 millimeter or larger growing on a healthy square meter of oyster reef. 
 
The reef creates a huge amount of surface area that provides tiny pockets of oxygenated and anoxic conditions — and the associated nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria — in close proximity. Similarly, the active sediment community around the reef is filled with worms and arthropods that are churning through the sediment, increasing contact between oxygenated and anoxic areas.

The massive filtering power of the oysters, combined with that of other filter feeders dwelling on the reef, pulls algae out of the water. The algae is digested, and the ammonia in the oysters' excrement is then acted upon by bacteria in the sediment and microhabitats created on the reef. In effect, the entire reef community acts as an organic denitrifying machine. "You vastly increase the number of microhabitats available for both the nitrifying bacteria and the denitrifying bacteria, and you provide them with huge amounts of organic material to work with," Kellogg said.

She and her colleagues estimated that if all 4,250 acres of restorable oyster habitat in the Choptank were rehabilitated, it could remove 48 percent of nitrogen inputs to the river through denitrification — more than enough to meet its cleanup goals.That suggestion has generated interest in using oysters as a nutrient control strategy, although Kellogg and Cornwell caution that their Choptank estimates are filled with important caveats.
The reef Kellogg studied had more than 100 oysters per square meter — an extremely high number compared with most restoration projects. Guidelines adopted by state and federal agencies last year set a goal of 50 oysters per square meter for Bay oyster restoration projects, though as few as 15 living oysters per meter can quality as a success. Whether such low densities provide significant nitrogen removal rates is unknown.

Further, Cornwell noted, the Choptank study took place in one, 12-foot-deep location. Whether those denitrification rates are the same in shallower water — or in intertidal areas where oysters are exposed during part of the day — are also unknown.
"We don't know very much about the potential range of denitrification rates," Kellogg said. "We suspect that what we measured in the Choptank is at the high end." But the intriguing results have stirred support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Chesapeake Bay Office, The Nature Conservancy, the city of Virginia Beach and others to help sample additional sites.A quick look in Virginia's Lynnhaven River suggested a relationship between the density of oysters and their denitrification potential.

Last summer, Kellogg and her colleagues began more rigorous studies on a shallow water reef in Onancock Creek on the Bayside of Virginia's Eastern Shore, as well as on the intertidal zone of the seaside, where oysters are exposed above the water for a portion of each day, then inundated as the tide comes up.
On the seaside, the scientists went to exposed reefs during the low tide and transplanted oysters and the associated reef community onto semi-buried trays. Some trays had zero oysters, some 250; others had numbers in between. Those densities were replicated multiple times in each site.

On the Onancock, trays of hatchery oysters of varying densities were incorporated into shallow-water reefs.
Later, at various times, the trays were planted, crews returned and latched a plastic cover on top of the trays, capturing the reef above, as well as all the water around the reef. They were transported to the VIMS Eastern Shore Laboratory, where the nitrogen removal in the water could be measured. But the oysters in the Onancock, which initially showed promising results, died for unknown reasons. Results from the intertidal reefs are still being examined, Kellogg said, but show denitrification there "is going to be a way more complicated story" — perhaps not surprising for a reef that spends a portion of each day out of water.
The fate of the Onancock oysters provides a cautionary note about overly relying on oysters for nutrient control. Relatively few oyster restoration projects in the Bay succeed, and when they are lost, most of the denitrifying benefits are lost, too. "We know that oysters being there, and being alive and functioning, is critical," Kellogg said.

She noted that oysters don't prevent nitrogen from getting into the water; they only remove it once it's there. Water quality in the Choptank tends to be worse upstream of areas with potential oyster habitat. Bringing back oyster bars would be of little help in improving those upstream areas."Nitrogen has to be in the water before oysters can remove it," Kellogg said. "So that nitrogen has already had an impact upstream from the oysters." 

And the scale of restoration needed to make a significant impact is far beyond anything that's been accomplished so far in the Bay. The Bay's largest oyster restoration project, now under way in Harris Creek, a Choptank tributary, is expected to cover only 300 acres and could cost $30 million.
But, Kellogg said, denitrification by oyster reefs could provide a backstop to help keep nitrogen from reaching the mainstem of the Bay where it is a major contributor to large zones of oxygen starved water in the summer. "Oyster reefs can serve as sort of a safety net before that nitrogen hits the mainstem of the Bay," she said. "But you should primarily appreciate oyster reefs for other things, like habitat."

Diseases may be tied to sudden decline in water quality
While their potential role in future Bay restoration is unclear, the recent work highlighting the denitrification potential of oyster reefs might shed light on how the Chesapeake got to be in such bad shape, said Jeffrey Cornwell, a scientist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.When nitrogen enters the Chesapeake, it spurs the growth of algae blooms. When there's more algae than can be consumed by fish and zooplankton, the excess sinks to the bottom where it is decomposed by bacteria in a process that draws large amounts of oxygen from the water.

Water monitoring data shows that in the 1980s, the amount of oxygen-starved water in the Bay began to increase relative to the amount of nitrogen entering the estuary. Put another way, each pound of nitrogen on average resulted in a slightly greater amount of oxygen-depleted water than had been the case prior to the 1980s.Exactly why things began getting worse isn't clear. But Cornwell noted that the number of oysters in Maryland waters dropped sharply in the 1980s as they were hit by two diseases, MSX and Dermo, which decimated the population. 

The loss of the oysters, and their denitrification capacity, could explain why water quality suddenly started getting worse, even as pollution inputs stayed roughly the same. "This seems to connect disease, potentially, to major environmental change," Cornwell said. "It's compelling in terms of timing."
 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Oyster Shell Recycling Program Expands

Mass Oyster has been carefully growing its oyster shell recycling program and is happy to announce the addition of the North End Fish Market. The Mercato del Mare on 99 Salem Street in Boston's North End has joined the team.



Liz and Keri offer a popular oyster shucking school, Shuck University on Saturday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The lesson is free, you pay for what you shuck. To reserve a spot email info@northendfish.com



Liz and Keri at the North End Fish Market
Liz and Kerk of North End Fish know how to shuck!
While you are there, you can pick up some terrific seafood- fresh, ready to heat for dinner, or wrapped with style as sushi.


Once we have collected the shell and taken it to our storage/processing facility, the shell must be aged for a year according to State regulations. After serving its time, the shell can be used at shellfish hatcheries as a base for young oysters to grow on, or it can be placed on the bottom in areas with an oyster population creating more places for the free floating young oysters to settle and make a home. This can help increase the oyster population significantly.

Recycled shell Mass Oyster donated to Wellfleet has helped create an area with an estimated 16 million oysters.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Seasonal Oyster Jobs in Scenic Rhode Island

RI Seasonal Oyster Farm Jobs

Jobs available working on the water in pristine Ninigret Pond in Charlestown, RI Walrus and Carpenter Oysters, LLC seeks motivated and enthusiastic individuals for full and part-time positions on their oyster farm this summer.  
 
This green job requires that qualified applicants exhibit a robust work ethic, high degree of reliability, and a good sense of humor. Must be physically fit with the desire to work outdoors in any type of weather. Applicants with experience working in the marine environment or seafood industry preferred. 
 
Join the ranks of the fastest growing environmentally beneficial industry in Rhode Island today. Compensation commiserate with experience.  Opportunities for advancement.  
 
To apply please send cover letter and resume to ben@walrusandcarpenteroysters.com
 
Oyster Farm Walrus and Carpenter
Walrus and Carpenter Oyster Farm
 We have had some very pleasant interactions with this team.

Oyster Hatchery Job in Maine

Mook Sea Farm is an oyster farm located on the Damariscotta River in Maine.  

Map of Maine


We seek a person to help run microalgae production in our hatchery.  Preference will be given to applicants with microalgae culture experience, and a demonstrated understanding of sterile technique and hatchery technology.  However, applicants with expertise in other biotechnologies including clean rooms and fermentation will also be considered.  We are looking for a team player who pays attention to detail.   In addition to microalgae production, duties will include helping out in the hatchery when needed and with nursery and grow out activities.  Pay will be commensurate with experience.  Send resumes, and
work references to mkseafarm@gmail.com


Photo of Walpole Maine  Oyster Hatchery
Scenic Walpole Maine