Written by Carl Huntsberger, Research Assistant
Me with one of our scallop cages that needs to be sorted and cleaned.
This week marks the end of my first month of the 2020 research season on Hurricane Island, and what a great month it has been! Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis the research team has been lucky enough to be able to continue our projects on the island while taking necessary precautions to keep us all safe. Hurricane Island has a research aquaculture lease site which is largely dedicated to projects focused on providing more information to improve scallop aquaculture. Along with other growers and institutions, we’re involved in projects monitoring growth rates in different gear types and water quality on our farm and others. We’re also monitoring potential gear effects on the timing of spawning events and, as part of the Maine eDNA Project, working with the University of Maine and Bigelow Laboratories to develop how we might use eDNA (environmental DNA) as a tool for monitoring both wild and farmed scallop populations. More on that in future blogs.
As the scallops grow they become crowded in the aquaculture gear, reducing their feeding ability and increases their stress, resulting in slower growth. Thus, each spring we clean the cages holding the scallops and move some to new cages giving them room for appropriate social distancing. Allowing the scallops room to feed and move freely not only improves their general health, it also reduces the risk of direct transmission of any diseases present. In my previous position at Coonamessett Farm Foundation, I was part of the team which monitored the wild population of scallops on Georges Bank for signs of disease or stress. The disease we had identified in the scallops poses no risk for consumption but decrease the quality of the scallop, either making the scallop unmarketable or significantly reducing the price and taste. There is no evidence of this phenomenon at our site that we are aware of, but this year we will start careful monitoring of the scallop meat quality during our existing spawning data collection. I actually developed the method we’ll be using to evaluate meat quality (Pic #2) and look forward to using it on Hurricane!
Examples of the range of scallop meat quality found on Georges Bank with normal scallops on the left and poor quality scallops on the right. We will be using a similar scale to evaluate the condition of the scallops at our site.
While lower densities of scallops improves their growth in the gear, the high densities on farms overall makes them great potential spawning locations, with the possibility of enhancing wild populations of scallops. Early observations from a pilot study on the Hurricane Island site suggest that scallops grown in bottom cages on our site are spawning sooner than scallops grown in lantern nets. This difference might allow the juvenile scallops a longer growing season before the winter, potentially improving their chances of survival. These are some of the other questions we’re exploring in our research. Again, more on that later, so stay tuned for more information, results from our projects, and more about our aquaculture site. We would love to hear from you with any questions or words of wisdom!
