remote setting systems for oyster spat on shell

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The goal is to help men and women like Pitcher to clear some of the hurdles that face oyster farmers new to the business, in this case by training them how to produce the young oysters that will grow into larger shellfish like the ones hanging off of Pitcher's dock. It’s run jointly by the Oyster Recovery Partnership, a non-profit group based in Annapolis the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Hatchery, which supplies oyster larvae and the University of Maryland Sea Grant Extension Program, which provides training support. The waterman is learning about aquaculture through a project called the Remote Setting Training program. He says that aquaculture will give him and his three adult children, who are also his business partners, new opportunities to earn a living. Pitcher is excited about this new venture, too. The shellfish he pulled up this day are from his first generation under cultivation, and he's working on his second now.

He's one of a growing number of Marylanders who have turned to oyster farming, or aquaculture, as a business. He may not be crabbing, but Pitcher is still working the water. He usually harvests crabs from the river around this time of year, but he says that he hasn't been out in his boat for several days because of the heat. It's a steamy August day, and the waterman is sweating. Pitcher's dock juts out from Broomes Island, a small spit of land on the Patuxent River a few miles north of the town of Solomons. Shellfish growers involved in remote setting operations in Maryland watch oyster larvae being prepared for placement in a setting tank.

Remote setting systems for oyster spat on shell