The Shellfish Farm News
April
2003
Spring
has arrived and along with the blooming daffodils and budding
trees the first major plankton blooms of the year are happening
in Baynes Sound. These blooms are noticeable for the characteristic
colour they impart to the water. Most plankton blooms are
green or brown in colour - the different colours are different
species of microscopic plants or “phytoplankton”.
They grow in response to increasing light and nutrients
in the water, just like the grass on the land grows best
in the spring.
The
phytoplankton is important to shellfish as it is the only
kind of food upon which they feed. This time of naturally
high food availability is the best time of year for seeding
new crops. Every year from April through September shellfish
farmers in Baynes Sound seed millions of clams and oysters
(and more recently, mussels and geoducks). Shellfish “seed”
are simply tiny clams or oysters, ranging in size from less
than 1 mm to over 10 mm. The seed have been raised in a
hatchery by spawning male and female clams or oysters. The
sperm and eggs are combined in the hatchery and the resulting
shellfish larvae are reared in large tanks until they are
ready to “set”. When setting the larvae change
from a free-swimming form to tiny clam or oyster seed ready
for seeding. Often the tiny seed will be grown in an intermediate
nursery system to attain a larger size before being sent
to the final grow-out stage on the shellfish farms.
Spring
is also the time of year when Fanny Bay Oysters sponsors
their first Baynes Sound beach clean-up campaign of the
year. Twice a year, in the spring after the herring fishery,
and in the fall after tourist season, we accept applications
from local youth groups to help pick up litter from the
public beaches in Baynes Sound. Fanny Bay Oysters pays the
group based on an hourly rate and the number of participants,
and also supplies the boat and operator. In the last 2 years
the Cantiamo choir group from Courtenay has participated.
Groups can expect to raise $1,000 to $1,500 per 2 days worked
based on 20 participants working 4 hours per day.
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