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MINUTES
SEA SCALLOP WORKING GROUP 9:30 AM - noon, October 30, 1997 Cape Cod Economic Development Council 480 Barnstable Road, Hyannis, MA In Attendance: W. Burt, L. Byrnes , S. Campbell, J. Dutra, C. Gagnon, C. Goudey, H. Halvorson, D. Kimball, J. Pearce, S. Soares, R. Smolowitz, P. Spalt, A. Spinale, J. Winslow, R. York. 1. Introductions and Remarks. Dr. Halvorson welcomed the group. In his opening remarks he noted the confusion over the time of our meetings by not having it confirmed during the meeting itself. To avoid this three dates were selected; Jan 8th was confirmed. He called attention to the most recent NOAA Technical Report (September 1997) that concentrates on the history, present conditions, and future of the Molluscan Fisheries of North and central America and Europe. This report contains a number of articles of interest to SSWG. Dr. Jack Pearce offered to get additional copies and stated that these reports could be obtained by writing to the Managing Editor Shelley E. Arenas, Scientific Publications Office, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 700 Sand Point Way N.E., Seattle, WA 98115-0070. Also you can call the Fisheries Research Center (905) 872-0200. He next reported that IMBC'97 in Italy was very successful. Over 500 people participated in a meeting which moved daily to a new location. In focusing on economic development in southern Italy, it had a strong focus on aquaculture. In our bus trips between towns, aquaculture films (Sea Grant, NRAC) were shown including our SSWG production. On the international front we (Center of Excellence Corporation) are in the last stages of completing an exchange program between Mass., Hokkaido, and Chile funded by the International Monetary Fund. In this one of the areas of interest will be to establish models - like SSWG- for establishing aquaculture that is representative of, and supported by the local community in southern Chile. We may well be asked to assist them from our own experience. There is another issue that I would like you to think about. It has been several years since we held a workshop to develop our Blueprint for Sea Scallop Aquaculture in Massachusetts. Since we will soon have data from the Westport Project, it may be timely for us to critically review this data sometime this next year and se if our priorities for future activity should be modified. If I might comment on two of our previous priorities, our efforts to obtain funds for a GIS project have so far been unsuccessful. Plans for K-12 aquaculture education are moving ahead and we will soon be in discussions with the NE Board of Higher education to explore these possibilities. There was general interest in information about Chile. Dr. Rhodes, who helped develop Sea Scallop aquaculture in Chile, has recently been employed by NOAA to oversee aquaculture. We are interested in having him attend SSWG. It was pointed out that Fred Stevens was still involved in this aquaculture in Chile and would be a valuable resource. 2. Truro Sea Scallop Project Ms. Judy Dutra, with a slide presentation, described their project in Truro. This has been a learning experience in our first year from two legged predators to scallop breaks to starfish and cages tipping. During this period they lost 95% of the animals. However they are continuing with spat from Nantucket. It would be very helpful if they could learn how to collect spat. Their project is two miles offshore in 85 feet of water. They have a five year permit from the town of Truro, but have to go back every year to the Corps of Engineers for continuation of a grant. With slides she described the cage set up under water. Different cages and buoys have been tried. Their experience has been that the fewer cages per string - the greater the success. From experience they have selected a light weight marking buoy. Initially 8-12 mm scallops were obtained from Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group. They have now grown to 60 mm. There about 1000 left of the initial 50,000 placed in the water. The growth rates were very good - about an inch per year. The survivors are healthy and strong. She described the cultivation of 1 mm spat from Nantucket. They were placed into a very fine mesh bag which then went into pearl nets, larger bags and into cages. Since they were handled less, they developed better. In Pearl nets they do well but the handling into larger bags leads to problems. They found that the timing was very important in moving the scallops around. Three or four weeks after the starfish larvae begin to hatch (about the middle of June), you need to change your bags and clean out the starfish larvae. Thus you should clean your bags in the middle of July or the beginning of August. This gets rid of 99% of them. During outgrowth the bags are tied to the inside of the cage. The more the bags were brought up, the more problems they had. After they reach 25mm in size they need more room. After experimentation they settled on 1.5 inch mesh. They used cages with doors. Fewer cages and fewer people per boat (4 maximum) improved efficiency. In discussing predators, starfish can grow up to 60 mm in four months. they are not present initially but the larvae come in through the water. Liming the bottom was suggested but the Dutra's did not wish to add chemicals to the water. Loss of cages from draggers was described as a problem . The site needs to be monitored on the days when scallop dragging is approved. Scuba divers are essential. They help to define the environment around the cages as well as the orientation of the cages themselves. Together with the New England Fisheries Development they purchased 50,000 spat from Nova Scotia. 90% died in transport. The second batch were flown in, wrapped in moist towels, and survived well. However after growth there were very few scallops found in the bags. We need more biological information to collect spat. We have about 100 bags out now. Spat bags work in New Zealand. They have finalized on 1.5 inch mesh cages. If you keep the last (bottom tray) empty it works better. It was suggested that it would be better to get spat from the hatchery than trying to collect them from the wild. Also it was suggested that it would be better to change the bags under water. When the cages are tipped, the scallops cluster up in the corners. The divers are important to avoid this problem. An ROV ($3K - $50 K) would be helpful to the industry. 3. Biological interactions, controlling community structure. In previous meetings the question has arisen as to what is the relationship between scallops, or other bivalves, and starfish. Dr. Jack Pearce has been researching this and prepared a report from his own earlier research and a library search. From his earlier research in Seattle they had recognized that sand dollars could move a matter of yards in a few days. They focused on the food in the sediment, especially the plankton. This work was never published. Later in Woods Hole he got into epibenthic ecology - study of hard surfaces. The attached report is to lead the interested observer to developments in this field. If there are any questions about this report or the research, he invited people to call him. He went on to point out that knowledge about attractants and repellents would be invaluable to the development of the aquaculture industry. He suggested that it may be useful to grind up some shells of scallops and the disperse these over the sea floor to recruit the larvae. As we learn more about the biology of these organisms, there will be additional experiments to perform. Ron Smolowitz commented on his experience in water south of New York, where there are patches of dense scallops and nearby in similar conditions, there are none. Why? The possible inhibitory effect of sand was noted. 4. Update on State Initiatives Mr. Scott Soares reviewed recent
developments in aquaculture initiatives in Massachusetts. The first is
the aquaculture grants program. He brought copies of the RFR which has
a deadline of November 7th. It has a maximum of $135,000. Maximum awards
are $50,000 which requires a 50% match of cash/and or support in kind
and a limit of 20% for overhead. The general criteria are: The second is funding for seaport. This is the largest project for aquaculture
in Mass. ($3.5 M in 1995). These funds have been transferred to the Dept.
Food & Agriculture. The three projects to be funded by this are: The next Advisory Group meeting is scheduled for Nov. 20th. Suggestions for legislative changes for regulatory reform for next year which will be put before the group. One of these was the dedicated funding of three aquaculture centers. The third center will be located in western Mass. for fresh water aquaculture, pond and recirculating systems. A second issue for the committee is promotion. We plan to set up a booth at the next Seafood Show in Boston. An interactive Web page will be initiated soon. The review process will be internal with a number of state agencies with some external technical experts. Bill Burt summarized the current status of Southeastern Mass. Aq. Center. Personnel have been identified and the Center will be shortly started. 5. NEFMC Scallop Plan Mr. Ron Smolowitz reviewed some of the recent developments in NEFMC that could impact Sea Scallop aquaculture. The Council has restructured their committees and have gotten a bit more formal with the industry advisory groups. There will be a maximum of 15 people per committee, they will have their travel paid and must attend meetings. There is now a strong habitat committee, an aquaculture committee., and a professional standards committee. This latter will be very important as it deals with responsible fishing and, of importance to us, deals with the issue of experimental fishing and research. In the Westport Project the later were the biggest problems we had to deal with. To obtain exemptions from existing regulations we will have to be labeled as experimental fishers. The aquaculture committee has met and its recommendations were approved
by council. It states that each plan should develop an aquaculture aspect
to it. However each committee, including the Scallop Committee will be
dominated by fishing interests. We should have an aquaculturist on that
committee. He is on the aquaculture and habitat committees; Cliff Goudey
is on the Personnel Committee. A major step forward was to get the Scallop
Committee to consider area management. There is an document, which includes
area management, in public hearing. Ron considers area management to consist
of four concepts: At the present areas to fishermen means closed areas. It is unfortunate that the term closed areas in the public hearing document. There will be more open hearings and people should attend these and give support. Once we can get the management plan into the Scallop Plan then we can ask for some research areas. The Sandy Hook Lab, under Dr. Cross who serves on the Habitat Committee, may start focusing research on habitat issues. We need to stress the need for more knowledge on the biology of scallops in the early stages. Rather than starting to write an amendment to the NEFMC Scallop Plan, we should focus on the research needs, including interactions. We should also stress research needs in the Personnel Committee. An area management scheme is needed within the Scallop Management Plan. Next year habitat impact will probably arise as an issue among all plans. The density of scallops outside the closed areas is exceedingly low. In conclusion Ron stressed that it is very important for supporters to participate in the upcoming public meetings. As for action at this time, we should write a research proposal. 6. Upcoming Meetings 7. Next Meeting 9:30 AM - noon, January 8, 1998
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