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Papa is bringing the oysters back |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
By CARL CRITZ
CHARLESTOWN - When he was in high school, shell fisherman Nick Papa used to come to Ninigret and other ponds in South County and collect bushels of oysters without as much as an afterthought. But sometime in the late 1990s a combination of over fishing and disease brought Rhode Island’s shellfish populations, particularly oysters, to the brink.
Years later, Papa and other shellfishermen are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to implement a bold campaign aiming at bringing back Rhode Island’s natural oyster beds.
The goal of the effort is to increase essential oyster habitat to benefit a wide range of aquatic organisms and simultaneously improve water quality. By 2011, shellfish farmers funded by the NRCS will have grown, reared, and transplanted over 30 million oysters, approximately 5,700 cubic feet of oysters on shell, using approved techniques.
Once abundant in Rhode Island estuarine waters, natural oyster beds are now scarce. In addition to serving as a high protein food source for migratory waterfowl and other marine organisms, the water filtering capacity of healthy and abundant oyster beds can improve water quality as well as water clarity.
On Friday, volunteers from the local shellfishing community as well as NRCS personnel met to transplant the latest batch of bedded oysters, over 2.5 million larvae, to a designated spawning and rearing site on Ninigret Pond. Despite the chill in the air farmers Rob Krause, Nick and John Papa, Jim Arnoux and others worked for several hours after tending to their own farms to help install the material.
Among the volunteers was NRCS volunteer Justin Tuthill, who said that because of the participation by local aquaculturists, Rhode Island’s program is unique because it is industry-led. “They have exceptional knowledge of how to grow these oysters,” Tuthill said.
The NRCS is known in more popular farming circles for providing assistance to farmers to implement conservation on their lands by providing technical assistance and cost-sharing for the restoration effort seen in other land habitats. In Rhode Island, the NRCS has been working with local shellfishermen since 2006, and has based this project after a similar one implemented on Cape Cod.
The group is also partnered with efforts that arose after the North Cape oil spill restoration project, as well as the efforts of coastal landowners, who typically grow small amounts of oysters in their waters.
NRCS worked in collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the University of Rhode Island, Coastal Resources Management Council, Roger Williams University, Ocean State Aquaculture Association, aquaculture industry leaders, and The Nature Conservancy to develop a restoration program modeled on successful citizen volunteer and academic restoration programs along the Atlantic seaboard. In all, thirteen local growers will help in the restoration project.
Ninigret Pond is the largest site, with three dedicated growers making their home there and over seven million oysters to be planted in the artificial reefs constructed by Krause, Papa, and others.
The restoration sites are 10-foot by 10-foot patches, set in the Ninigret Pond’s spawner sanctuary, protected from harvest by the general public. The pile is generally two to six inches thick.
“The oysters attach to large pieces of surf shells placed in large bags and exposed at a hatchery,” Tuthill said. “The larvae attach to the material in July, and now in late October it’s the time when they are large enough to plant them in the wild without fear of mortality.”
Tuthill said the NRCS has planned several studies to monitor the progress of the oyster beds in the upcoming year. “The following spring we’ll do an over-winter mortality study, and in the fall we’ll do a summer growth study. Hopefully if the conditions are right and the project works out we will create a thriving reef that eventually the whole pond can harvest as the larvae spread throughout the area.”
Two weeks previous, Nick Papa and others set out a base layer of clean shells so that the planted oysters won’t settle into the bottom.
On Friday the shellfishermen were out for a total of eleven hours of work, transporting the bedded oysters to the spawning grounds after making their own harvests nearby. They headed out with more of the approximately 60 cubic yards of bedded clamshells.
“Its mostly the gear we choose to use,” Papa said. “It’s so heavy we can’t haul it into the boat so the easiest way to harvest is to dive with SCUBA gear. Once we were working we were warm but once we stopped, that’s when we started to get cold.”
“We’re helping to get the natural population get re-established. It has an industry-wide benefit. It gets more oysters on the market and helps keep the water clean.”
Scientists will be able to monitor water quality throughout the course of the project, watching for dropping nitrogen levels, an indicator of the project’s success.
“When you decrease the decomposition in the pond which robs it of oxygen, you create a better environment for fish, clams, and also the oysters in the pond,” Papa said.
The project will be ongoing throughout the month with oysters being transplanted into eight water bodies including Ninigret Pond, Bissel Cove, and Quonochontaug Pond. |
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