Year: 2020
Project(s):
Relevance
The natural reef harvests of the native eastern oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) has been in decline for the last few years in part due to wild harvest and environmental impacts. Culturing oysters spawned from broodstock in hatcheries is a sustainable resource for food supply and has a beneficial economic impact in the community.
Response
Sea Grant extension personnel worked with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to develop and conduct a training program for off-bottom oyster aquaculture. The course consisted of two sessions that included classroom and field activities. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, an additional training was held remotely.
Results
Over 20 people participated in the course, and many are expected to move forward to participate in the training area of the oyster park, where they will raise 10,000 to 12,000 oyster seed to market size. It is expected that some of these students will move forward with a commercial oyster aquaculture operation, which will be the third time this training has been conducted in Mississippi. In the last three years the program has trained 64 students, and 27 have gone on to start a commercial oyster farm.
Recap
This program taught potential and current commercial Mississippi oyster farmers the basics of off-bottom oyster aquaculture and provided a foundation of knowledge for them to start or improve their oyster farming operations. (2020)