PARK-, Md. - Hope
for new harmony between farmers
and watermen is on the horizon,
notes Tony P. Mazzaccaro,
assistant director for marine
advisory programs in the
University of Maryland's
Cooperative Extension Service. .
Traditionally, the two groups
have grudgingly tolerated each
other. At times, they have shown
open hostility in the form of legal
battles primarily reading
allegations of agricultural
pollution to oyster beds in the
Chesapeake' Bay and its
tributaries.
But Mazzaccaro bases his op
timism in part on presentations
by speakers at a recent Maryland
Aquaculture Conference, held at
Busch’s Chesapeake Inn near
Annapolis.
In line with a broad emphasis on
aquaculture, the conference in
€ eluded representation bom the
American Farm .Bureau
Federation and the Maryland
Farm Bureau.
A University of Delaware Sea
Grant representative, Kent Price,
explained agricultural aspects of
the 1980 National Aquaculture Acti
(PL96-362), and a University of
Maine aquaculture specialist'told
about oyster fanning in the Pine
Tree State.
Finally, an administrator for the
Virginia Institute of Marine
Science described '' farming
techniques which have adapted for
a promising program on claim
culture.
These included:
—Using an old De Laval cream
separator to sort out clam larvae
from brackish water;
—Building a solar greenhouse
for housing clam-rearing tanks;
—Keepmg everything “dairy
Aquaculture, a different type of ‘farming’
clean” to avoid bacterial disease
problems;
—Utilizing anti-bird plastic
webbing made for fruit trees as a
barrier to protect clam beds frorti
stingrays, drumfish and other
natural enemies. He noted that
fouling - a problem with most
protective materials - does not
occur on the fine plastic mesh.
Mike Castagna, the Virginia
speaker, noted that providing
adequate nutrition when clams
start getting some size to them is
the major roadblock to be removed
before commercial clam
production becomes “a very
profitable operation.” Castagna is
director of, the VIMS Marine
laboratory at Wachapreague,Va. '
Describing another aquacultural
SCSA meeting looks
ANKENY, lowa Interregional
conflicts over management of land
and water resources in the western
United States and Canada will be
the focus of the 36th annual
meeting of the Soil Conservation
of .America, August >5,
1981, m Spokane, Washington.
Theme of the meeting will be
“Land, People and Policy: The
Western Connection.” Activities
will center in the Spokane Con
vention Center and Sheraton-
Spokane Hotel.
Norman Wengert, a professor of
political science at Colorado State
University, will keynote the
meeting. Wengert will present a
western viewpoint on the conflicts
that have developed over water
rights, ' energy development,
management of public lands, and
related Issues.
Emery Castle, president of
Resources for the Future,
enterprise, George E. Krantz, Sea
Grant research worker at Horn
Point for the University of
Maryland, presented some
promising statistics on oyster
farming. His facts came primarily
from practical experience in the
Deal-Island hatchery at the mouth
of the Wicomico river on
Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore.
“For about $18,000,” Krantz
said, “you could set up an oyster
hatchery that will seed about 60
acres of oysters on tidal flats. This
is about the right size for a family
'operation.
“It could provide a part-time
supplement to some other
operation, such as crabbing (or a
small livestock-crop farm).
Washington, D.C., and J. Blair
Seaborn, deputy minister of En
vironment Canada, Ottawa, will
then discuss these same issues
from the national points of view.
The meeting program will also
feature a panel discussion on
building consensus to make
natural resource policy. Among
the panel participants will be
Idaho Governor John Evans;
William Ruckelshaus, senior vice
president of Weyerhauser Com
pany; William Swan, president
elect of the National Cattleman’s
Association; John Crowell, Jr.,
assistant secretary of agriculture
for natural resources and en
vironment; and Bill Young, chief
forester for the British Columbia
Ministry of Forests. R. Neil
Sampson, executive vice-president
of the National Association of
Conservation Districts, will serve
as moderator of the panel
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 23,1981-D3
“But site-specific problems can
make or break you in this game,”
Krantz warned. He pointed out, for
instance, that oysters grow faster
at Deal Island than at Horn Point
because of better water quality in
that area of the Chesapeake Bay.
The man from Maine, Herbert
Hidu, also warned about pitfalls in
aquaculture—principally because
it is a relatively new field. He
reported that, after a 10-year
educational campaign, Maine now
has 20 to 30 successful growers
producing oysters on a com
mercial scale and perhaps a half
dozen commercial blue mussel
producers.
He noted the Maine Aquaculture
Association, formed in 1977, now
conducts an annual aquaculture
at resource
discussion.
A highlight of the program will
be the Fourth Annual H. Wayne
Pritchard Lecture, delivered by
R.G- Downes, retired director of
the Australian Ministry of Con
servation and a world expert on
soil conservation.
The program will also include
six sessions planned by SCSA’s
resource conservation divisions.
These sessions will cover a variety
of land and water management
issues, including soil erosion
control, wetlands protection, water
NEED
MORE ROOM?
Read The
Classified
c#mß T'su euvs,,, msvs sym/ Real Estate Ads
conference. And it lobbies in the
state legislature.
Also on the organizational side,
Bruce Hawley of the American
Farm Bureau Federation invited
Maryland watermen to consider
joining their county Farm Bureau
organization to help achieve
lobbying power in state and
national governments.
The Maryland Aquaculture
Conference was sponso.ed by the
Cooperative Extension Service in
cooperation with the University of
Maryland’s Sea Grant program,
the Tidewater Administration of
the State Department of Natural
Resources, and the Chesapeake
Bay Seafood Industries
Association.
conflicts
quality management, surface
mine reclamation, fish farming,
and consequences of the Mount St.
Helens volcanic eruption.
A preliminary program and
registration details are available
from SCSA, 7515 Northeast Ankeny
Road, Ankeny, lowa 50021.
SCSA is a nonprofit scientific and
educational organization
dedicated to advancing the science l
and art of good land use. It has
14,000 members in the United
States, Canada, and about 80 other (
countries.