Shellfish, Nitrogen and the Health of Our Coastal Waters

Marine Extension Bulletin Available

This marine extension bulletin serves to summarize the often confusing potential for shellfish to be used as part of a plan to mitigate the effects of excess nutrients in coastal waters. The Cape Cod area in particular is grappling with the potentially enormous costs of reducing the nutrient load to coastal waters and all options are up for discussion. Shellfish are natural inhabitants of coastal waters and through their normal feeding activity are involved in cycling and incorporating nutrients through their food. This bulletin discusses the potential, and also the challenges to using shellfish production as part of a nutrient reduction plan. Available here as a pdf. For a hard copy email seagrant@whoi.edu.