From the Mashpee Enterprise · July 16, 2021 · By Ryan Spencer
Mashpee seeded the upweller tanks beside its Little River harbormaster shack on July 12, 2021, starting another season of shellfish propagation. Shellfish Constable Donovan McElligatt said that for the first time the town would grow oysters somewhere other than the Mashpee River, setting up an oyster farm on the Waquoit Bay side with the goal of opening a recreational oyster fishery there by winter 2023, possibly near the Great River boat ramp. The town ordered about 4.2 million quahogs and 2.45 million oysters, switching to larger seed from the Aquacultural Research Corporation hatchery for better survival and lower labor costs.
Shellfish filter nitrogen from waters polluted by septic systems, lawn fertilizer and road runoff, and Mashpee’s water quality plan pairs five phases of sewering with shellfish aquaculture. McElligatt said oysters remove more nitrogen than quahogs and that broadcasting oysters near Great River should help that system, which has not been a productive quahog area. Four million oysters planted in the Mashpee River the previous season continue to stock the harvest at Mashpee Neck Landing.
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