Today’s Vineyard Gazette reports on the effort to revive the island’s oyster population.
Tiny oysters paint the bottom of Tisbury and Edgartown Great Ponds. There has been a huge set of oysters this summer and the future looks bright for a bumper crop to be ready for harvest in three years. And all this is welcome news to a community of shellfish biologists, shellfish constables and water quality experts who have worked for years trying to restore what was historically a prosperous and healthy fishery..
Pay wall there but more here
The Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization comprised of the shellfish departments the six Island towns. The Shellfish Group has tax deductible status as a Massachusettes corporation.
For over thirty years, the Group’s community-based resource management program has sought to preserve and expand the Island’s traditional shellfisheries. Key to this effort has been the operation of a solar-assisted shellfish hatchery, the application of innovative aquaculture technology and a continuing vigilance to improve and maintain the good surface water quality crucial to a viable shellfish industry.
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