Shellfish Culture at the Milford Laboratory: hatchery production, stock enhancement and aquaculture research

Provide shellfish in support of Milford Lab efforts, external research projects and regional shellfish restoration. Conduct aquaculture experiments aimed at optimizing static culture of larvae. Examine new technologies for measuring organismal stress in aquaculture systems.

Developing sustainable methods for rearing shellfish to meet the growing national demand for nutritious, protein rich seafood is the goal of the culture group at the Milford Laboratory. The culture group accomplishes this by producing shellfish to support a variety of aquaculture research and conducting laboratory experiments to identify ways to improve shellfish husbandry practices.

Heated and filtered seawater is available to raise many species of bivalve larvae in Milford Laboratory’s hatchery. Adult shellfish are conditioned for spawning and their larvae are reared in 400-liter conical tanks. Trays and indoor raceways receive unfiltered seawater with natural phytoplankton to grow post-set shellfish to a “seed” size. Species recently cultured at the Milford lab include bay scallops, oysters, clams, and mussels, all of which have economic value. The shellfish hatchery also provides staff, and external research partners, with animals for experimental work year round. In addition, the hatchery has supported multiple restoration efforts through the provision of shellfish.

NEFSC Data Access Procedure:

1. Formal request in writing usually to the data owner/contact or Center Director;

2. Requester is contacted by data owner to review and verify the request content and details for data delivery options.

3. If data is confidential then owner will determine if the data may be released to the requester;

4. If data can be released, the data is downloaded and packaged for delivery electronically; or the requester may be directed to where the data is available online.

NEFSC Data Access Constraint:

If data is stored on an internal NEFSC network, the requester may not have direct access to query the data unless they are also authorized for network access.

Excel on local hard drive

Subsampling

Complete in house hatchery records; Incomplete restoration data.

Internal audits along with best fit/historical confirmation. Hand entered data validation.

Scheduled backups, remote storage backups

Journal entry converted to excel spreadsheet