Development of an Intertidal Upweller Nursery for Shellfish Aquaculture

View the project final report

Commodities

• Animals: shellfish

Practices

• Animal Production: housing

In shellfish aquaculture there is a preference for larger juvenile seed, but larger seed costs more. Some farmers use upwellers—nurseries with a constant flow of water, food, and oxygen—to raise their own smaller, less expensive seed to market size. Unfortunately, upwellers rely on a constant flow of seawater, prohibiting their use in the intertidal zone. This project will design an upweller suitable to intertidal conditions, and then build and test ten of them on Cape Cod Bay. Outreach will be through an extension bulletin that will detail how to build and operate an intertidal upweller, and through presentations at industry-based meetings.