Oyster spat project nc5/4/2023 ![]() Hardy said he would still like to renew interest in the pilot project this spring if oyster seed can be found. Those rules are scheduled to go to public hearing late this spring and become effective this fall. The MFC decided to continue with the pilot study during the 18-month-long rule-making process, allowing those who had already signed up to begin growing oysters earlier than others. In the meantime, the General Assembly passed a law last summer that directed the division to establish a statewide permit without the 50-dock limit or regional participation caps. And by the time the participation problem was solved, the oyster seed had outgrown the project.Ĭraig Hardy, chief of the Resource Enhancement Section of the Division of Marine Fisheries, said that because it was so late in the year, none of the seed the gardeners could have gotten from out-of-state would pass importation requirements. Selection of participants was to be made proportionately to each coastal region based on the density of piers.įisheries officials had originally expected to begin the pilot study in the spring of 2004, and young oysters were spawned at Carteret Community College in anticipation of the project.īut the project was delayed because of a lack of applicants from the southern-most coastal areas of the state. The commission approved a pilot study for up to 50 participants in August of that year. The group presented the proposal as a way for individuals to grow their own oysters for personal consumption and, at the same time, help the environment because the oysters would filter water pollutants and spawn to add to the wild population. Shellfish Gardeners first asked the Marine Fisheries Commission for permission to grow oysters in off-bottom cages attached to private docks in March 2003. "That would be fine with us, if it happens," said John Allison, president of North Carolina Shellfish Gardeners, a group of hobby shellfish growers. ![]() People who signed up a year ago for a pilot study to grow oysters in cages under their docks have yet to get the go-ahead from state fisheries officials.Īnd the president of the group that initiated the proposal said it may best to forego the pilot project altogether in favor of a statewide permit that will likely go into place this fall. ![]() Have yet to get the go-ahead from state fisheries officials. People who signed up a year ago for a pilot study to grow oysters in cages under their docks
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