The Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization comprised of the shellfish departments the six Island towns. The Shellfish Group has tax deductible status as a Massachusettes corporation.
For over thirty years, the Group's community-based resource management program has sought to preserve and expand the Island's traditional shellfisheries. Key to this effort has been the operation of a solar-assisted shellfish hatchery, the application of innovative aquaculture technology and a continuing vigilance to improve and maintain the good surface water quality crucial to a viable shellfish industry.
For over thirty years, the Group's community-based resource management program has sought to preserve and expand the Island's traditional shellfisheries. Key to this effort has been the operation of a solar-assisted shellfish hatchery, the application of innovative aquaculture technology and a continuing vigilance to improve and maintain the good surface water quality crucial to a viable shellfish industry.
News & Announcements
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July 1, 2010. Studying the effect of adult oysters on larvae recruitment.We designed a study to investigate our hypothesis that adult oysters release a type of cue which the larvae detect and are more likely to set near by. |
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June 30, 2010. Triploid scallop tagging. |
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June 29, 2010. Best oyster spawn in the history of the Shellfish Group!"I have never seen anything like it" said Rick Karney, director of the Shellfish Group for the past 35 years. |
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June 15, 2010. First scallop spawn of the season comes early. |
June 6 to June 18, 2010. Quahog distribution. |
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April 8, 2010. Quahogs spawn millions! |
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March10, 2010. Let the Quahog conditioning begin!Broodstocks from the towns of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Chilmark and Tisbury were brought in for conditioning. |
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March 20, 2010. New floor is in!Everything was taken out of the building to allow the installation of the new poured in floor. |
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Announcing: Friday May 14th, 2010. Benefit wine tasting at ATRIAJoin us for the 1st Annual Martha's Vineyard California Wine Affair, the marquee wine tasting, in historic Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. |
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July 17, 2009. Oysters finally spawn millions.After 3 days of waiting, the oysters finally spawned. |
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June 28, 2009. Scallop spawn.In an attempt to produce tetraploid scallops, triploid and regular diploid scallops were spawned. |
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July 1rst, 2009. Distribution week!!We spawned them, we set them, we fed them, we sieved them, and now, we say "good luck and goodbye"... |
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June 2009. Gathering mussel seed.Jack saves the day again, providing enough mussel seed for our demontration offshore mussel farm. |
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April 2009. A slow start.Well, what do you know... the quahogs spawned in the bucket 2 days before our scheduled spawn. |
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March 1, 2009. It's on!The shellfish group staff starts the season with algae growing and quahog conditioning |
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August 26, 2008. Measure mussels and say goodbye!The staff measures mussels from the offshore experiment. Emma Green-Beach and Jimmy Bishop leave the nest... |
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August 23. We go to the fairRick, Emma, liz and Amandine go to the fair |
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August 15, 22, 29, 2008. Triploid Scallop spawn.A worldwide first, triploid scallops were spawn to attempt the creation of a tetraploid broodtock. |
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July 27, 2008. Remote set oysters are transfered to floating raftsShell bags covered with newly set oysters were transfered to floating rafts on Sunday. |
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July 1, 2008. Hatchery staff spawns again.The hatchery staff spawns oyster broodstock from Edgartown and Tisbury Great Ponds. Watch the Movie! |
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June 13, 2008. First scallop spawn.The largest bay scallops I have ever seen were spawned on friday. |
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April 15, 2008. First quahog spawn of the seasonClams from three Martha's Vineyard towns were spawned on april 15. Watch the movie! |
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March 10, 2008. Quahog conditioning is on..Parents of the next mvsg grown clam generation started conditioning on Monday. |
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March 6, 2008. Spring kick offIt's that time of year again,we are gearing up for a busy and hopefully uneventful season. |
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July 5, 2007. Stupid accident leaves hatchery understaffedOn thursday july 5, hatchery manager Amandine Surier slips and falls, breaking a bone in her foot. |
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June 29, 2007. The scallops are leaving the building...The scallop seed is being distributed to the towns of Edgartown, Tisbury, Oak Bluffs and Chilmark. |
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June 6, 2007. Bay scallop spawnSurf is up. The Bay scallops have been rippening long enough at the Chappy nursery. It's time to give it a go. |
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May 25, 2007. Fact finding trip to offshore mussel farm in NHA group of fishermen from Martha's Vineyard visited the first East Coast offshore mussel farm near the Isle of Shoales in New Hampshire |
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May 2, 2007. Quahog SpawnThe second quahog spawn of the season yielded more than 19 million embryos. |