Dark green and gray, slick with algae, pocked with parasitic scars and polychaete worm tunnels, wild oysters are survivors, fighting everything the pond's brackish waters throw at them.
The Tisbury select board unanimously approved changes to the town’s aquaculture regulations that will allow oyster farmers in Lagoon Pond to grow their crops closer to the water’s surface.
Shellfish farmers in Tisbury are lobbying for changes to town aquaculture regulations, hoping to gain more flexibility in permitted growing methods for oyster farms in the Lagoon.
Near Chappaquiddick Point lies an unassuming summer house with a big mission. Over the last summer, the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group has converted the two-bedroom home into a shellfish nursery complete with swirling pools of saltwater and millions of baby bay scallops. And although the project is not yet complete, the hatchery has already helped raise millions of tiny shellfish for distribution to the Island’s coastal ponds.
A bay scallop farming study is one of several projects in Dukes County funded by new state grants, aimed at bolstering the local shellfish industry in a time of climate change.
Oyster farmer Greg Martino won the Tisbury select board’s approval for a one-acre shellfish farm in Lagoon Pond this week, bringing to three the number of aquaculture licenses in town.
The Selectmen of this town have granted a license to Mr. Peter West to plant, grow and dig oysters, in a certain part of Squash Meadow Pond, for 20 years. We are glad to hear this. The oysters grown on this Island are of a very superior quality, and we should not be surprised to learn of the complete success of the new enterprise.
A sweeping new state report on ocean acidification recommends legislators take immediate steps to mitigate the impacts on the state aquaculture industry.
Two aspiring shellfish farmers were approved for Tisbury’s first aquaculture licenses at the select board meeting Tuesday night. Noah Mayrand and Jeffrey Canha both received licenses.
