Connecticut Sea Grant hosted the final in a series of four on-the-water workshops celebrating its 30th anniversary on July 26 on Norwalk Harbor. Seven speakers and 24 passengers toured the busy harbor aboard Spirit of the Sound, the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk’s hybrid electric vessel.
Aquaculture
Shellfish Initiative gets fresh look from commissioner, farmers
State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt met on July 15 with representatives of seven commercial shellfishing businesses, along with state Bureau of Aquaculture and Connecticut Sea Grant staff, to brainstorm revisions and updates to the 2016 Vision Plan created under the Connecticut Shellfish Initiative.
Eastern Sound is classroom for third on-the-water workshop
Connecticut Sea Grant hosted its third on-the-water workshop aboard Enviro-Lab III, Project Oceanology’s vessel, leaving from the docks at the UConn Avery Point campus on June 14.
NOAA’s Milford lab provides key ingredient for shellfish farms
“The Milford lab,” as it is known in the shellfish industry, is a main supplier of algae to shellfish farmers along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts – and even worldwide. NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center has supplied algae free of charge to shellfish farms for more than five decades, drawing from collection of 230 strains, among them those that are most important for young oysters and clams.
Public hears of LIS Blue Plan impacts on new, current users
Commercial clammer Rosemary Louden asked how the Long Island Sound Blue Plan would impact the business that’s been in her husband Jay’s family for the past 100 years. At the May 14 public meeting on the plan, she learned that the historic Louden commercial shellfish beds in Greenwich are considered “significant human use areas” that would gain protection from any proposals that would impact them.
Public radio podcast features CT Sea Grant’s Concepcion
Anoushka Concepcion, aquaculture extension specialist with Connecticut Sea Grant, is interviewed about kelp farming by WHYY public radio station Reporter Alan Yu for an episode of the podcast, “The Ocean and Us.”
Citizen scientists key to active recreational shellfish beds
The efforts of Don Murphy, Richard Conant and other citizen scientists — also called community scientists — on municipal shellfish commissions are being highlighted by Connecticut Sea Grant as part of a NOAA Sea Grant initiative.
Toxins to templates: it’s all in shellfish commissioners’ world
Clams and oysters might seem like simple creatures, not bothered with cell phones, income taxes or the meaning of life. But for the humans overseeing how these animals are harvested, the condition of the waters where they live and their opportunities for growth in Long Island Sound, the lives of these bivalves are a complicated affair.
‘You can link economic incentives to small-scale fisheries’
An interview with Bob Pomeroy, fisheries extension specialist with Connecticut Sea Grant, appeared in “Fish Forever Progress Update,” a newsletter published by the international organization Rare, and is reprinted with permission from the editors.
In pilaf, salmon, manicotti, kelp’s versatility impresses chefs
A small group of restaurant professionals gathered in the Sheraton hotel kitchen on Dec. 13 for an introduction to kelp cuisine from Jeff Trombetta, professor of culinary arts at Norwalk Community College. He’s been chopping, sautéing and consuming kelp for the past four to five years, developing recipes for what he believes could become chefs’ “new go-to vegetable.”