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ASAP = Apprenticeship in Shellfish Aquaculture Program. In collaboration with the New Jersey Sea Grand Consortium and local growers, we conduct a 10 week paid apprenticeship to learn the basics of shellfish aquaculture. The program visits high schools across several coastal counties providing overviews of careers in aquaculture. Interested students 16 years and older can apply to the summer internship to gain a first-hand understanding about the aquaculture industry through education and practice including in-person instruction and on-farm work experience. Participants will discover the inner workings of shellfish aquaculture, gain entry-level work skills, and learn what it takes to get food from the farm to our tables. More information and applications are available here.
Cape May VoTech Program. At our Cape Shore Facility, each year we host two student internship aquaculture training sessions, in cooperation with the Cape May Technical School. In early spring, we conduct a two week aquaculture training class. The goal of the class is to familiarize high school students with the methods used in a shellfish hatchery, and to provide them with hands on experience in setting up a field grow out system that can be used to cultivate oysters and clams. In late fall, we conduct a one week program which has a primary focus of shellfish stock relocation to protected over-wintering grounds and the winterization of all aquaculture systems at our Cape Shore site.
Field activities for the Spring class include the installation of growing racks and row markers on the inter-tidal flats located in front of our laboratory, installation of sea water lines for our hatcheries and nursery systems and transfer of shellfish stocks from the Cape May Harbor overwintering location to our Cape Shore Laboratory. Activities in the hatchery include set up of brood stock conditioning tanks, setting up tanks to begin culture of various species of micro-algae (used for feeding oysters and clams in the conditioning tanks) and discussions on larval and juvenile bivalve culture. During the second week we begin to collect mortality and growth data on juvenile and adult oyster stocks.
The students get paid while gaining hands-on experience working on our research farm.
For more information, please contact the Cape Shore Farm Manager, Sam Ratcliff.