Rising aquaculture raises all boats, say Delaware Sea Grant researchers

Millsboro, Del. – According to researchers out of the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science & Policy College Sea Grant, Delaware’s aquaculture industry is experiencing a growth spurt over the last five years.

“We have four new shellfish farmers that are moving with us, in the last year with the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and Sea Grant,” Dr. Edward Hale said. Hale specializes in Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Sea Grant and is an associate professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science & Policy College.

The Sea Grant is a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and universities, administered by NOAA. “We’ve actually partnered together, create an oyster hatchery that’s been supplying seed oysters so that the farmers can grow them out in Rehoboth Bay,” Hale said.

Hale says some of that growth has been due to regulatory changes at the state level.

Rep. Jeff Hilovsky (R-District 4) so-sponsored a resolution that established a task force devoted to Delaware’s aquaculture. He said, to support the state’s aquaculture, the taskforce was established to explore farming in the inland bays. However, he says, to do that the bays need to be healthy and that is achieved through oysters.

“Oysters filter like 500 gallons of water a day. And so if they, you know, clean that much water, the more oysters we have in there, they’ll cleaner the water is going to be,” Hilovsky said.

Turbidity is the level of murkiness in the water. The higher the turbidity, the less water grasses there are, which mean less wildlife. Hilovsky said more oysters mean less turbidity.

Hale says what he wants more residents to take away from their work is the efforts to create sustainable seafood production, and he says, that includes oyster aquaculture.

“I think making those connections between beneficial habitat provisioning for species that people want to go harvest, like black sea bass and tautog, is an important connection for people to kind of bring together,” Hale said.