Local Officials Share Their Aquaculture Stories At Oyster Symposium

CCB MEDIA PHOTO Hog Island Oyster Company was among the local oyster producers featured at the Grand Tasting last night at the Sixth Oyster Symposium at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth.

BEV TILDEN/CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Hog Island Oyster Company was among the local oyster producers featured at the Grand Tasting last night at the Sixth Oyster Symposium at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth.

NORTH FALMOUTH – Oyster producers and entrepreneurs from all over the world are in Falmouth this week for the International Oyster Symposium. But locals are presenting their oysters projects too and some of the most cutting edge research is done right here on Cape Cod.

The towns of Mashpee, Falmouth and Wellfleet are all using oyster aquaculture and the filtering power of the animals to clean nitrogen from local waterways.

Mashpee Shellfish Constable Richard York, who took part in one of the presentations at the symposium, said, “The great thing is we get to tell our story, what we’re doing locally. Falmouth, Mashpee and Wellfleet were the first towns to really do this, so we get to tell our story too.”

York said, Mashpee has been using oysters to filter out algae and help restore water quality in the Mashpee River since 2004.

“We were the first ones to target the nitrogen removal and water quality restoration aspect of this,” he said.

But he said he was looking forward to gaining some more knowledge from the international community, and also the participants from Chesapeake Bay, who can talk about their water restoration aquaculture projects.

In the meantime, Mashpee is stepping up its aquaculture program.

“Now we’re ramping up. The Town Meeting just voted $250,000 for shellfish seed as an implementation of our Comprehensive Watershed Nitrogen Management Plan, which just got state approval,” he said.

Falmouth officials were also at the symposium.

Ron Zweig, who is on the Falmouth Water Quality Management Committee and also on the board of the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, said of the conference, “I think there is some broad experience in the type of work we are doing here in Falmouth. Other people will be bring other experiences. I’m hoping to glean some pearls from that—from the oyster viewpoint—and to incorporate them into the program here.”

The town of Falmouth currently has two million oysters in an aquaculture water restoration project in Little Pond in Teaticket.

Zweig was participating in one of the panel discussions and also giving one of the presentations on water quality improvement through use of shellfish, particularly oysters, as well as quahogs.

“You’ll see that there are different understandings and different approaches that are being taken and from those progress can be made,” he said.

Today is the last day of the symposium.

There are numerous speakers, workshops and presentations today at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth.

By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com News Editor

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