Seeds of Aquaculture

From the late 1940s to the 1960s, a research team led by WHOI biologist Alfred Redfield investigated clam farming and the biology of softshell clams in a large harbor in Barnstable, Mass., on the north side of Cape Cod. In this photograph,Redfield plows the marsh to help seed clams dig in. (This hard work turned out to be unnecessary, as the clams managed to dig themselves in nicely.) The group learned a great deal about clam predators and eventually expanded their work to study environmental influences on the reproductive cycle of a variety of bottom-dwelling organisms. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)