Rick Karney
When giving tours of the shellfish hatchery, I find that scallops attract the greatest attention.
In January after over 40 years with the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, I will be stepping down as its director.
As I joined the line waiting to enter the meeting room, I greeted and joked with some of the oyster growers in a manner customary among close friends. Like old friends coming together at a funeral, our jolly small talk denied the seriousness of the occasion.
Like planets in a long awaited alignment, a host of unique circumstances has come together that favor the success of oyster farmers.
The Copenhagen climate summit has been much in the news for two weeks and the media is full of stories about rising carbon dioxide (C02) levels, increasing acidity of the oceans, drastic changes in weather patterns, the warmest decade on record, melting glaciers, rising sea water levels and coastal communities in imminent danger of inundation. And that’s just the tip of the melting iceberg!
Shellfish and the human species have a long affiliation. For the most part, it has been an unequal relationship with the shellfish providing sustenance, health benefits and ecological services and in return receiving human abuse through over-consumption, over-harvesting and destruction of their habitats. On the positive side, we humans have exalted shellfish in our art and culture and when necessary have implemented restoration efforts if only to maintain shellfish populations for our own well-being.