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Town Hall

Town Hall
24 Perry Avenue
Buzzards Bay, MA
02532-3441

508-759-0600

Hours of Operation:
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Monday - Friday
Excluding Holidays

PROPAGATION CLOSURES

Effective April 15, 2010 the following areas will be closed to all shellfishing for the purposes of management & propagation:

Winsor Cove

All waters and flats of that portion of Winsor Cove in the town of Bourne east of the shellfish boundary post located on Winsor Island to the “No Shellfishing” sign located approximately 150 yards north of the beachway at Winsor Road.

Phinney’s Harbor

The recreational area known as Tobey Island, North Side. All waters and flats south of an imaginary line running from the Monument Beach Ramp northwesterly to a shellfish marker placed on the most northerly end of the sand bar off the north shore of Tobey Island, thence by an imaginary line running in a southerly direction to the wooden pier located on the northerly shoreline point of Tobey Island.

Little Bay Oyster Bed East

The waters, flats and all tributaries thereto, in the Town of Bourne, of that northeastern portion of Little Bay designated as the Little Bay Oyster Bed East, north of a line drawn west from the marker at 10 Briarwood Lane and south of a line drawn west from the marker at 6 Briarwood Lane and thence seaward to the floating markers.

Shellfish Permits

Type	Fee	Note
Recreational Resident	35.00 USD
Recreational Resident Senior	10.00 USD	65+ Years
Recreational MA Resident	175.00 USD
Commercial Clam	250.00 USD
Commercial Eel	100.00 USD
Commercial Quahog	250.00 USD
Commercial Scallop	250.00 USD
Commercial Master	625.00 USD	All Species
Commercial Apprentice	100.00 USD	12-16 Years

Documents (PDF)

	Title
	2010 Army Corps Tide Tables
	Commercial Shellfish Permit Application Info
	Guide To Shellfish
	Shellfish Area Map
	Shellfish Bed Closures
	Shellfish Regulations
	Shellfish Regulations: Amendment 2010-1
	Shellfish Regulations: Amendment 2010-2

Shellfish Upwellers - Propagation

Putting The Upweller In Place

One of the upwellers is put in place by DNR personnel.

Upweller In Place

...and ready to go. Water trough & pump are in the middle, bays where silos will go are to the left & right.

Putting The Silos In

DNR employee attaches silos to the trough.

Hundreds Of Oyster Seed

...easily fit in the palm of your hand.

14 Quahaug Seed

...easily fit on the tip of your finger. In reality, you could put dozens there.

250,000 Quahaug Seed

This is about a quarter of a million quahaug seed, ready to be placed in trays in the silos.

Placing Seed In Silos

Which is done gently, so as not to crush the shells.

Quahaug Seed At 3 Weeks

There has been visible growth in the 3 weeks since the seed was placed in the upweller.

Oyster Seed At 6 Weeks

Oyster seed grows MUCH faster and is more apparent in its' growth than any other shellfish species.

By The Middle of Summer

What started out as "grains of sand" at the bottom of the silos has now been put into trays that go to the top of the silos.

Oysters At 9 Weeks

By this time, many of the oysters measure in the 1-1.5 inch range.

Oysters Being Planted At 12 Weeks

Because of their quick growth & taking up excessive space in the upwellers, oysters are planted 1-2 months before quahaugs.

Quahaug Seed At 4 Months

This is the seed at approximately 16 weeks and shortly before planting.

Quahaug Seed Size

This gives you a better idea of how big the seed is when we finally put it out on the shellfish beds at the end of the growing season.

Quahaug Seed Loaded On Boat

Here the seed is loaded onto our work skiff in the silo trays and ready to throw out onto the shellfish beds.

What's With The Orange Paint?

We paint some of the see fluorescent orange, so we can try to keep track of the seed, how well it survived, and the growth rates over the coming years.

Quahaug Seed A Year Later

Here we're measuring the seed and comparing growth rates in different areas.

Definite Growth

And you can see where that orange paint comes in real handy.

Another Area Being Checked

And you can see that it resulted in VERY good growth over a year's time.

Different Colors....

For different batches of seed and different areas. So now when you see those "colored quahaugs" out there, you'll know why.

Oyster Seed The Following Year

Oysters we don't have to paint. The definite growth since being placed in the water can easily be seen - Light vs. dark shell & a definite "ridge" in the shell growth. The one on the right is almost legal size (3 inches).

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