Oyster shells to seed are thrown into the bay, by installing babies’ oysters, known as spitting, to develop on the remains of old oyster shells, some of which are collected in restaurants in the region for use in oyster gardening projects. On contract, seed oysters for commercial producers must be raised without attaching to a shell.
Rick Chamberlain, president of Delaware Environmental Coalition Inc., will discuss the aquaculture hatching program designed to protect natural resources by focusing on environmental issues. The discussion will take place at 3 p.m. Wednesday April 2 at the Episcopal Church of St. Martha in Bethany Beach.
On the program, free and open to the public, Chamberlain will explain how, four years ago, with other residents of Delaware, was worried about the quality of water in interior berries and began to speak of the need for an aquaculture runner, “an oyster hatch to raise frames,” said Chamberlain.
The spouting oysters are babies’ oysters, at the larval stadium, which are deposited and attach themselves to other oyster shells and become the foundation of oyster reefs and aquaculture.
An oyster can filter 50 gallons of water in one day – important because, said Chamberlain, a study carried out a few years ago indicated that the quality of water in the interior berries of Delaware was 4 on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the worst quality.
“This is where these oysters come into play, and that’s where oyster producers come into play. Now we have nine comrades who cultivate oysters, mainly in Rehoboth bay. Oysters are not the problems and fine, but they will do a lot of years in improving water quality.
Companies related to interior berries, including restaurants and bait and tacon stores, report $ 4.5 billion a year in the Sussex County economy and offer thousands of jobs, he said.
“If the bay goes south to the point where it is declared polluted, it will not recover in our life. We do our best. We are not finished. There is still a lot of work to do. When we started talking to people about it, they said, “Why does Delaware need another chicken chopping? No one really knew the importance of an aquaculture hatching, because Delaware did not, “said Chamberlain, remembering to have had a conversation with a professor from the University of Florida in order to learn more about the hatching.
“I wanted to get down and she said,” Wait a minute. Where do you call me? And when I said Delaware, his exact quotation was: “It is almost time”, because Delaware has no hatching anywhere, “said Chamberlain.
His presentation in St. Martha “will open the door to more conversation,” he said.
“Financial assistance is necessary because, although we have several million dollars of the bond bill and we will ask for more money on the bond invoice this year, there is no guarantee. We probably need another million to start phase II,” he said.
“At the beginning, we did all this work without any name. It was just a lot of people, a very popular effort. We are in the process of forming a private non-profit organization,” he said, creating the former chancellor of the Chancellery of Delaware William Chandler, a resident of Dagsboro whose law firm contributes to the effort to become a non-profit private goal.
“Over time, we have started to obtain with many municipal councils, people from the city government, state legislators and the first year, in the bond bill, we obtained $ 100,000. The second year, in the bond bill, we obtained $ 1 million, and the third year that we obtained $ 1.1 million. Now we have a Éclagery. The University of Delaware, on the Lewes campus, gave us an 800 square feet scenario. “The murder was consecrated,” because there seemed to be blood on the ground of this very decrepit building.
While phase II of the hatching project begins, the University of Delaware is expanding the space for the bark at 2,000 square feet in a new building which will be called Fisheries & Aquaculture Innovation Center.
“The objective is to deliver more oysters and clams, with a larger hatching space, more clams in water, more oysters in water, more crustaceans in water, trying to reintroduce the scallops of the bay. As this hatching increases, it will provide more jobs, and will not all require university studies.