Procedure Make sure the pump is running and put on an apron and bootsTurn off 1 and ½ valves in both tanksOpen the valve that goes to the hoseCheck the water pressure on the hoseYou want enough pressure to spray the mud and clam poop through the mesh, but not too much pressure that you … Continue reading Cleaning the Seed Clams and Buckets
Water Level and Upweller Flow
The flow of water through the upweller is different for each of the three buckets pictured at right. You can tell by the amount of sediment on the clams. The clams in the bucket on the left are pretty clean, the ones in the bucket on the right are covered with silt and other organic matter, and the ones in the middle are, well, in the middle.
One-Year-Old Clams: Growth and Mortality Report
Late in May, I collected and analyzed data on the one-year-old clams before they began feeding and rapidly growing. I was specifically focused on the average clam shell length and the estimated total number of live clams we had in the upweller. Our goal was to compare this data to the data that we collected … Continue reading One-Year-Old Clams: Growth and Mortality Report
Learning from Low Tides
Now that our first cohort of overwintering clams is in the Shellfish Resilience Lab's saltwater tank, we are learning how to maintain the lab's systems. Some of what we are learning may be unique to the Gouldsboro lab, but some of it is knowledge that other towns might use if they decide to raise and overwinter clams. This post shares some of what we've learned from the cold days and low tides this January and February.
Clam Recruitment – 2021 Results
Gouldsboro's shellfish committee places recruitment boxes along the shore to gather data about recruitment density. Identifying the bays and coves where recruitment is strongest is important when deciding where to focus restoration efforts. On December 17th we opened up the recruitment boxes that had been sitting out on mudflats during summer and fall. Opening up the boxes is kind of exciting. What will we find?
2021 Nursery Tray Findings
On November 16, 2021, a team of volunteers retrieved and processed the 10 nursery trays that had been floating in the old lobster pound behind Gouldsboro’s Shellfish Resilience Lab in Bunker’s Harbor. This is a report on what they did and what they found. It also looks ahead to what these findings mean for work in 2022.