Aquaculture

• Trying to start up a business with close friends with different levels of commitment

• How aquaculture is practiced in Massachusetts and other parts of the world

• The satisfaction in growing food on a larger scale

• How important aquaculture, and specifically bivalves and seaweed will be in feeding the future population

After getting sent home from my first year of college due to Covid, I found a job helping out on a local clam and oyster farm.  I worked on the farm through the summer and well into the following winter, and got to see the whole process of what is involved growing clams and oysters from planting to tumbling to harvesting.  The guy I worked for Jim, was quite experimental and very experienced in his cultivation techniques, and it was great to learn from him and Jimmy my other co-worker.  Shellfish farming requires a lot of repetitive physical labor, and the work schedule is very dependent on the tides so I was quite busy!  During this time I also took an online aquaculture class taught by the local community college and learned a lot about the biology of clams and oysters as well as different cultivation methods.  More recently, a friend and I got a three acre lease of land in Provincetown harbor where we have started to to grow clams and oysters of our own.  It's been a bit difficult as we are both full time students, but in the fall of 2022 we planted 70,000 clams and have dug a good number of the larger clams that were already on the grant when we acquired it.  Fall 2023, we took on the project of going through and harvesting all the oysters off the grant of one of our retiring friends culminating in the sale of 11,000 oysters!  In the future, we plan to continue to expand our operation.