February 10, 2014 — Aquaculturists see victory in a pilot program that will allow floating oyster cages in areas of Cape Cod Bay visited by rare turtles and whales.
In the past year, state regulators objected to the equipment because they said the increased volume of rope could entangle the rare animals. Now, the towns of Truro and Provincetown have reached an agreement to allow the cages in a new 50-acre aquaculture tract off North Truro.
"I think this is a win/win for growers and protected species advocates," Truro Shellfish Advisory Board member Scott Lindell said last week in an email to the Times.
Lindell, who directs a scientific aquaculture program at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, negotiated with state officials on behalf of local oyster growers who want to use the floating OysterGro brand of equipment.
OysterGro has been used in shallow estuaries and salt ponds in Massachusetts, according to state officials, but its proposed use in open waters in Cape Cod Bay is new. The new "aquaculture development area" tract is a joint experiment of the two towns to encourage local shellfish harvesting by removing barriers for small-business owners, such as federal permits. Each town is in charge of 25 acres.
OysterGro is headquartered in Canada, and has a sales office in New Bedford. The equipment consists of a wire mesh cage attached to a float, which is then roped together with another cage and float combination, and then another and another. The array of floating cages is anchored with rope to the seafloor.
"It would be nice to get to work," North Truro shellfisherman Dana Pazolt said last week about the yearlong wait to use OysterGro in the new tract.
The tract, which is in about 20 feet of water, received its federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Jan. 25, 2013. But state marine fisheries officials raised objections the following month about the potential risks of more lines in the water.