Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1050416
94 NOVEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPH BY KIM SMITH The upweller tank is located on the pier at Maritime Gloucester. protecting the shoreline against erosion and storm surges to providing habitats for other ocean life, including commer- cially important species like flounder, menhaden, herring, and striped bass. at's why the Massachusetts Oyster Project has, for the past decade, been working to restore native oyster popula- tions, while educating the public and advocating for policy changes to support their work. Among their projects is the Gloucester upweller, which acts like a shellfish incubator, giving baby oysters a safe place to grow until they can be relocated into the wild. According to Jennifer Cullen, president of the Massachu- setts Oyster Project, our coastlines were historically thick with oysters and oyster reefs. But factors like development and overfishing have seriously depleted the population, leaving shorelines more vulnerable and stripping away natural habitats. A N O RT H S H O R E P R OJ E C T e Gloucester upweller was first installed in 2017, and the program has since expanded to Marblehead and Hyannis. In 2018, the program received funding from a MassBays Healthy Estuaries Grant, and was also able to hire Puishys as an intern—its first and only paid employee—for 200 hours. All other positions are volunteer, including Cullen's. Since the beginning of the project, the upwellers have been home to more than 200,000 spat, which start out as tiny as grains of sand and enter the upwellers the size of red pepper flakes. Pumps circulate water, providing plankton for / I N - D E P T H /