With the surfclam industry facing an uncertain future amid all these threats, shellfish researchers at Rutgers and elsewhere are working to find solutions that may help both the clams and the fishers adapt.
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Hails Tanaka, who was awarded Best Student Poster at the 2023 MAC AFS meeting. Hail’s poster was titled, “Examining Size and Abundances of Juvenile Atlantic Surfclams (Spisula solidissima) over the Last Four Decades in New Jersey State Waters.”
The next speaker in the rebooted series will be Janine Barr, Unit Administrator/Specialist at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
Rutgers scientists are devising strategies for state businesses to successfully weather future adverse effects from climate change.
A student-led science story, Life on the Edge, which was funded by pilot grants featuring the research of Dr. Daphne Munroe, has now been accepted into 4 science film festivals, with possibly more to come:
• Cut International Short Film Festival
Using Rutgers University brood stock, the hatchery was able to have eight spawns this year, and is on its way to success in benefitting local aquaculturists in the state of Delaware.
Shellfishermen and scientists have spent years battling a disease that nearly wiped out the native oyster population. At last, there are signs of a possible way forward.
One East Coast collaboration, the Regional Shellfish Seed Biosecurity Program , is attempting to make interstate business easier for hatcheries and growers. “In a nutshell, we want to have a hatchery’s health record for three years, and see a clean bill of health for three years, before the hatchery becomes certified,” explains Lucia Safi, a postdoctoral researcher associated with Rutgers University and the Regional Shellfish Seed Biosecurity Program. “The hatchery will make an application for each product that they want to have certified. We do all this research and certified best management practices to minimize disease. In the long run, this will save a lot of time and money.”
In some parts of the East Coast, specially constructed blocks of concrete that mimic the surface area of an oyster reef are used for oyster settlement along the shoreline. This concrete must be designed to break down, however. Asking concrete manufacturers to make a product designed to break down may seem counterintuitive, explains Dave Bushek, director of the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers University.
HSRL RIOS interns finished their summer internships strong during the capstone poster presentation on Cook Campus in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. All four completed outstanding projects providing data that will advance the research they were involved in, while also learning about the basic process of conducting science and communicating the information revealed.
Molly and Nina were selected by an independent faculty review committee to present their posters at the next Ocean Sciences meeting and Michelle and Aisling’s mentors are discussing presenting their posters to relevant regional conferences. Congrats to all and thanks to everyone that helped support them.