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Improving lives in East Africa through shellfish aquaculture

Shellfish aquaculture in the coastal waters of East Africa holds great potential to provide a stable, healthy source of protein and as well as new economic opportunities for entire communities, so long as up-to-date knowledge and equipment are available. To date, however, very little shellfish aquaculture is practiced in Zanzibar because of a lack of shellfish hatcheries, which provide shellfish seed to farmers, and a lack of technical knowledge about how to best farm and manage shellfish stocks.

Contribute to ProjectWHOI on behalf of ProjectWHOI Zanzibar:
https://projectwhoi.whoi.edu/home/zanzibar

With the help of this ProjectWHOI fundraiser, Hauke Kite-Powell will be able to increase seed production capacity at the hatchery to about 10 million clam seed per year, which should translate into additional income of $100/year for several hundred shellfish farmers in Zanzibar, many of whom are women supporting families. Hauke will also be able to send staff from U.S. shellfish growing companies supporting this project to Zanzibar to help train hatchery staff and growers. Most importantly, it will support the training of the next generation of hatchery operators and lay the foundation for expanding shellfish aquaculture along the coast of Tanzania and other parts of East Africa.

The funds raised in this campaign will enable Hauke Kite-Powell to supply much-needed equipment to bring the training hatchery up to full capacity and to support the travel of US shellfish farm trainers who will volunteer their time to train local technicians at the hatchery in Zanzibar.

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Snuggles and Shellfish

Snuggles and Shellfish

After being measured and tagged by researchers during a 2007 Polar Discovery expedition in Antarctica, an adult Adelie penguin snuggles back down over its chicks to warm and feed them. In…

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Raising shellfish

Raising shellfish

Women from Unguja Ukuu-Tindini on the island of Zanzibar off Tanzania examine a shellfish farm that they are learning to set up and tend. Hauke Kite-Powell, a Marine Policy Center…

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Life cycle of a scallop

Suspended in the water, floating in unseen hordes, shellfish larvae are transported by wind and tidal currents until they settle and grow into adults. But this critical stage in the…

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Pollution Fighters?

Pollution Fighters?

Researchers from WHOI Sea Grant and the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension analyzed wild and farmed oysters and quahogs to see how much nitrogen the shellfish can store in their shells…

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Worth the Wade

Worth the Wade

Woods Hole Sea Grant Extension Agent Joshua Reitsma collects shellfish samples in Cape Cod’s Barnstable Harbor as part of a study to determine how much nitrogen they incorporate into their…

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Researchers’ Spat

Researchers’ Spat

Woods Hole Sea Grant Extension Agents Joshua Reitsma and Abigail Archer help distribute bags of shell that contain oyster seed (spat) to towns for municipal shellfish propagation programs. The Woods…

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Lunch Buffet

Lunch Buffet

WHOI research assistant David Bailey checks the algae used to feed shellfish larvae that he grows in WHOI’s Environmental Systems Lab. The shellfish are used by biologist Scott Lindell in…

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Monitoring the Tides

Monitoring the Tides

Crew on the R/V Connecticut load an Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) for deployment in the Gulf of Maine to monitor for harmful algae, which can cause illnesses in humans when…

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Scientist Don Anderson Honored

Scientist Don Anderson Honored

WHOI Senior Scientist Don Anderson (center) recently received one of WHOI’s highest honors, the Bostwick H. Ketchum Award, in recognition of his dedicated and pioneering research on harmful algal blooms…

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Filter Feeders

Filter Feeders

Woods Hole Sea Grant Extension Agent Joshua Reitsma samples oysters at a farm site in Pleasant Bay in Orleans, Mass. Towns on Cape Cod are looking increasingly to shellfish for…

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Robots and Red Tide

Robots and Red Tide

Nauset Marsh on Cape Cod occasionally develops harmful algal blooms (HABs) that can shut down shellfishing. To better understand how blooms spread, WHOI biologists Taylor Crockford, Heidi Sosik and Rob…

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Small Bloom Expected

Small Bloom Expected

Alexandrium fundyense is the algae notorious for producing a toxin that accumulates in shellfish and can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans. This organism swims in the water and divides…

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Seeing Red

Seeing Red

Dave Kulis and Liann Correia, research assistants in the lab of biologist Don Anderson, retrieve a CTD—an instrument that measures conductivity, temperature, and depth—from Salt Pond, part of the Cape Cod…

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ESP Power

ESP Power

Research associate Bruce Keafer and senior engineering assistant Jim Dunn wrestle a battery pack onto a frame to hold an Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), a computerized mini-laboratory to be moored…

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Class Field Trip

Class Field Trip

Students from a course entitled “Fundamentals of Shellfish Farming” offered by Woods Hole Sea Grant and the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension hiked out to the tidal flats to tour a shellfish aquaculture operation…

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How the Clam Garden Grows

How the Clam Garden Grows

In October 2013, Woods Hole Sea Grant–Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Agent Joshua Reitsma (left) and a shellfish grower examined the growth of “blood arks” (Anadara ovalis), on Cape Cod, Mass.…

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Pass the Oysters

Pass the Oysters

Woods Hole Sea Grant/Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Agents Joshua Reitsma and Abigail Archer help distribute bags of shell that contain oyster seed, also known as spat, to towns for municipal…

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Watery Wi-fi

Watery Wi-fi

Post-doctoral investigator Mike Brosnahan worked from a raft that supported an Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) on a frigid March day in Nauset Marsh in Orleans, Mass. The IFCB continuously records microscope…

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Bloom Buoys

Bloom Buoys

WHOI engineers Neil McPhee and Will Ostrom and Northeastern University student Ethan Edson (left to right) were part of a team who deployed three Environmental Sample Processors (ESPs) in early…

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