Journals 2003/2004

Margaret Brumsted
Dartmouth High School, Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Summer is coming to an end and unfortunately so is my time at with the North Cape Shellfish Restoration Project. Karin has been an excellent teacher and mentor sharing her extensive knowledge of shellfish biology and restoration. I am very thankful for all of the time she made available to me. Fortunately, I will be able to use Karin as a resource when I return to the classroom.

I plan on doing an oyster project with my marine science classes and have already been in touch with the shellfish constable in Dartmouth to discuss implementation. The idea of a remote setting project is pretty exciting and something that I would like to have the students work on. Oysters seem like such a willing creature for shellfish propagation and enhancement. Their extremely successful recruitment to shell bags, rapid growth and relatively brief grow out period to harvestable size make them an attractive critter to concentrate on.

I will be keeping up with the project during the fall semester and plan on working over at the Roger Williams site tracking the growth of the quahogs. Karin has several community work days planned for the fall which I plan on participating in as much as possible. They will be planting something like two million bay scallop seed brought from Fairhaven, Massachusetts into several of the salt ponds.

The field trip for my students has already been planned and I am looking forward to sharing what I learned with my students and my mentee.