Taylor Shellfish

Yesterday I went with a researcher, two graduate students, and my project partner who is a fellow undergraduate on a trip to look at Taylor Shellfish farms, with a focus on their mussel farming. I am currently working with my project partner on a research project testing the formation of byssal threads under different temperatures.the trip gave us a bit of insight into our project, we did learn much about aquaculture. We visited both the hatchery and one of many farming operations, with many floats out in the Hood Canal. They also farm geoducks, oysters. and clams (in California). Even at the mussel farm out in Hood Canal, there was plenty of wildlife to observe. The mussel float that didn't have workers on it was covered with harbor seals. I haven't yet seen harbor seals that close up in Puget Sound before. There were also many moon jelly fish in the water. Growing on the mussel strings were many animals, which were mainly considered pests (such as flatworms, which are a mussel parasite). Something that wasn't mentioned on the tour was the effect of pollution and anoxic conditions on the edibility of the mussels, and the affects of the farm and hatchery on the environment. It makes sense that the tour guides wouldn't talk about these issues, because they want their farm to look good. But I have heard that shellfish in Puget Sound have been found to contain toxins, and I don't know if they really should be growing and selling shellfish from this area. Another issue was that the hatchery seemed to be using huge amounts of water and bleach, which probably wasn't great for the environment. But compared to other types of farming, shellfish farming seems relatively sustainable.

Posted on October 27, 2012 10:40 PM by bitsyblatt