Massachusetts entrepreneur will open Rhode Island’s first shellfish hatchery by February, a move experts say will fortify the state’s aquaculture industry and make it more competitive with neighboring states. Wayne Turner, who has cultivated bay scallops with the Water Works Group, a Westport, Mass. research and education company, will open Hope Shellfish Co. LLC in Portsmouth early next year. The hatchery, to operate on a one-acre parcel leased from the Mt. Hope Maritime Terminal, will grow hard and soft-shell clams (quahogs and steamers), bay scallops, and oysters. The property was once known as Weyerhauser Pier, after the lumber company that formerly operated there.
When the shellfish reach the “seed” size – from a quarter inch to an inch in length, depending on the shellfish – Turner will sell them to local aquaculturists, who lease sites in Narragansett Bay from the state. In the late spring or early summer, these fish farmers will plant their seeds. By November, the shellfish will be ready for harvest.
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Now, aquaculturists must buy seed out of state. But this new hatchery will keep the money in state and provide the foundation for a solid aquaculture industry in Rhode Island, similar to what now exists in Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts, experts say.
Kevin Cute, a marine resources specialist with the state Coastal Resources Management Council, said the hatchery has the potential to provide aquaculturists with the predictable supply of seed that they need to be successful.
”It’s a very significant development to have a shellfish hatchery producing native shellfish seed,” Cute said. “Having a seed hatchery would be a very important step in supporting the growth of the existing tidal water shellfish aquaculture industry in Rhode Island.”
The step has been a long time in the making. It has taken Turner about three years to get the financing he needs. But with a $150,000 Samuel Slater technology fund grant from the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, a $150,000 loan from the Ocean Technology Center at the University of Rhode Island, and a Small Business Administration guaranteed loan from First Bank and Trust Co., Turner now has the requisite startup money. He closed the loan in May.
But acquiring that money was difficult, he said. Aquaculture is a new industry, and convincing lenders that his enterprise could work was a challenge.
”It took a lot of persistence on our part to keep parading the stories of successful people who are in the industry before the lending institutions,” Turner said. “It took a lot longer than I ever anticipated to get (financing).”
Turner has two partners. One is Luning Sun, who acquired his aquaculture expertise by working with hatcheries in China. The other is Karin Tammi, who has earned a master’s degree in bay scallop propagation from URI.
EXAMINING scallop shells is Wayne Turner.
The professor Tammi studied with, Michael A. Rice, said several factors work in Turner’s favor. For one, a shortage of shellfish seed has been emerging in the Northeast.
Second, being the only shellfish hatchery in Rhode Island, Turner’s company could feed into shellfish restoration projects around the state.
Also, by producing seed in state, local aquaculturists avoid the regulatory problems that accompany bringing in seed from out of state. All seed coming into Rhode Island must be disease certified, for example.
”It could be fairly successful, if it’s done right,” Rice said. But he added that while the state aquaculture industry has potential, it will never compete with larger states that can produce products in bulk. Instead, Rhode Island should develop its high-end niche market. In the early part of the century, Rhode Island had an oyster aquaculture industry in Narragansett Bay worth $90 million in today’s dollars, Rice said.
Today, Rhode Island’s gross aquaculture sales reach only $250,000 at best, he said. By comparison, Connecticut has a $60 million oyster aquaculture industry, while the Atlantic Salmon production in Maine is worth about $50 million, he said. In Massachusetts, Cape Cod aquaculturists now produce quahogs, he said.
The Hurricane of 1938, pollution in Narragansett Bay, and certain sociopolitical changes in Rhode Island conspired to kill the oyster aquaculture industry, Rice added.
But now, local aquaculturists are bringing the state oyster industry back to life, said state Rep. Eileen S. Naughton, chairwoman of the state aquaculture commission. Naughton added that Turner’s hatchery is essential to restoration efforts in Narragansett Bay. Shellfish help filter the water columns. This increases light penetration, which enables eel grass beds to develop. Eel grass serves as a habitat for scallops, which in turn serve as food for many other species, she said.
”While aquaculture can’t replace the environment, it does take a lot of pressure off depleted stocks at a time when we’re trying to (support) them,” Naughton said.
The traditional forces of supply and demand also work in his favor, Turner said.
While demand for quahogs remains strong, commercial landings have dwindled over the past 10 years, he said. Florida is now the top producer of quahogs. And it surpasses Rhode Island handily, he said.
He added that that United States lags behind countries such as China in the development of its aquaculture industry. Still, as the research develops it may one day be possible to use aquaculture to restore depleted fish stocks off shore, deep in the ocean, he said.
”Our country is in its infancy when it comes to aquaculkture,” he said.Though Turner will sell to private business people, evidence suggests that private aquaculture can serve a public good, said Cute of the Coastal Resources Management Council. Though the shellfish seed is planted in lease sites, the tides carry their spawn to the rest of Narragansett Bay, which essentially represents a free and common fishery, Cute said.
The development process works like this: Sperm and eggs are suspended in the water column, where fertilization occurs. Larvae develop into juvenile shellfish and settle to the bottom of the bay, where they eventually grow into market-sized shellfish, Cute said.
”What you have is a private enterprise which benefits from leasing portions of Narragansett Bay, and the public resource benefits from the addition of valuable, market-sized species for the free and common fishery,” Cute said.
