Shuck n’ Hope for Our Future
This blog post was written by Nina E. Ferry Montanile, education and outreach manager at Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc.
As a society, we all hope that future generations will be able to learn from and build upon the scientific advancements and achievements of the generations who came before them. Building connections between today’s young people and the scientific understanding essential to support aquaculture is crucial to our work. This February, our staff taught 13 children between the ages of five and eleven how to shuck locally harvested quahogs and oysters before transforming them into two beautiful meals. Served family style, our Marine Biology and Aquaculture 4H-Club, Seashore Explorers, broke bread with another nature conservation club led by Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, Winging It! For two hours on a snowy Saturday, these kids chopped, mixed, sauteed, and pan-fried Clam Cakes and Oyster Chowder, many of them trying local shellfish for the first time. In my mind, it was the perfect kind of fun chaos that will reward our staff, our guests, and these kids for years. We’ve learned it’s more complicated than it looks to connect people who live next to the sea, but don’t rely on it for its bounty, to this invaluable water resource.
In February 2025, Oliver Montanile (7) and Theo Armstrong (8) learned how to shuck at their Seashore Explorers 4H Club meeting at the Trustees of Reservations FARM Institute in Edgartown, Massachusetts. Teaching them are long-time Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group staff Chris Edwards, hatchery and facilities manager, and Emma Green-Beach, executive director and shellfish biologist. Photo credit: Nina Ferry Montanile
Rural and bucolic, Martha’s Vineyard is often thought of as an island for the rich and famous, but there is a bustling, diverse community of 21,000 residents in the winter and over 100,000 in the summer. Like other maritime communities, Martha’s Vineyard has deep roots in working waterfronts, wild shellfish harvest, and tribal reverence for shellfish. However, the slow shift to a modern world has taken many families away from harvesting their own shellfish or being able to appreciate the long days/months/years that go into oyster farming or commercial fishing. With funding from the eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grant program in FY25, the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc. (MVSG) has leveraged unique partnerships to increase community exposure to marine science, local shellfish culture, working waterfronts, and environmental stewardship. Rooted in NAAEE’s Key Characteristics for Community Engagement and Education, MVSG is focused on documenting local aquaculture through celebrating our first fifty years of community impact while providing hands-on education and science to today’s children and adults.
Utilizing community-centered collaboration by working with local public libraries, MVSG scientists were able to directly interact with 472 school-aged children and twice as many adults to bring aquaculture and science activities into non-traditional learning spaces. The year 2024 was full of library programs, shellfishing lessons, volunteer citizen science programs, extra-curricular clubs, festivals, agricultural fairs, and even a story time at the local Farmer’s Market. Working with the West Tisbury Free Public Library as a project partner instantly garnered trust and interest in our restoration hatchery work through their wide participant distribution channel, allowing our messaging to reach thousands of people indirectly.
In order to increase social license and support for aquaculture, MVSG wanted to heighten understanding by highlighting connections between our restoration hatchery work, public aquaculture, and private aquaculture. Intentionally scheduling season-long events and programs fostered a persistent nomenclature and wove the different areas of the industry together to hone our messaging. With flyers titled “Family Aquaculture Series with Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group,” “Citizen Science and Aquaculture Series,” “Aquaculture in Autumn,” and “Types of Aquaculture and Winter Shellfish Harvest,” our purpose was clear. We wanted all 21,000+ residents and visitors of Martha’s Vineyard noticing, supporting, and participating in the aquaculture that surrounded them each day. We did this by bringing aquaculture gear and germane environmental science experiments to clubs, libraries, and festivals and inviting laymen to volunteer with us in the field. All together, we facilitated or had a featured presence at 40 programs and events.
In October 2024, Isaiah Scheffer, Shellfish Constable for Chilmark, MA, worked with the West Tisbury Propagation Agent to manage a municipal oyster farm in Tisbury Great Pond on Martha’s Vineyard. Onlookers were invited to learn about the farm and the town’s efforts to grow oysters and seed the ponds. This program was in collaboration with the West Tisbury Free Public Library. Photo Credit: Nina Ferry Montanile
Sample of aquaculture series posters made by Nina Ferry Montanile to advertise programs.
The second half of our project journey will include another set of series programs advertising aquaculture’s myriad forms and benefits and the release of documentary shorts celebrating MVSG’s 50 years in the industry. After filming a handful of shellfish and marine habitat restoration pioneers over the last few months, we can’t wait to preserve and widely share this notch in history. And one day, when our Seashore Explorers have grown, we hope they have access to funding and community support to teach others how to shuck a quahog, harvest an oyster, or call us out of the blue to make a film about our generation’s efforts to be exceptional stewards of this Earth and its creatures, its habitats, and its wonders.
In December 2024, Ollie Becker, Filmmaker at Circuit Arts, interviewed Ed Bugbee, retired Oak Bluffs shellfish constable, Mike Zoll, retired Dukes County extension agent, and Rick Karney, director emeritus of MVSG (from left to right), at the Hughes Hatchery in Oak Bluffs, MA. Interviewees reviewed archival photos and newspaper clippings, discussed the local politics of conservation and development on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1970s, and shared firsthand accounts of what led to the formation of Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc. in 1976. Photo credit: Nina Ferry Montanile
For more information about our Education and Outreach efforts, please visit www.mvshellfishgroup.org, or contact Nina Ferry Montanile at nina@mvshellfishgroup.org. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
With the eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grant program, NAAEE is driving significant change for a second time! We are supporting partnerships with the common goal of aquaculture literacy set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Education, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the National Sea Grant Office. The nine mini-grants awarded will provide more than just financial support; they catalyze innovative educational experiences focused on aquaculture topics and promote public aquaculture literacy in eight states. These grants empower nonformal learning institutions (like aquariums), the aquaculture industry (such as shellfish, finfish, and seaweed farmers), and NOAA partners to make a tangible impact on our understanding of aquaculture. From "Agriculture in Aquaculture” to "Empowering Ocean Stewards," these grantees are helping to support a blue planet!