New hatchery for shellfish growing near oyster bar
$2.4m facility will be built in South Kingstown
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R. I. — Work is underway to build a new shellfish hatchery across from the Matunuck Oyster Bar.
The 4,118square-foot, $2.4 million facility is a collaboration between Perry Raso — the man who put Matunuck oysters on the map — and his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island. Some $1.3 million in federal funds will support the facility and provide equipment for researchers, according to US Senator Jack Reed, who held an event Tuesday to highlight the ongoing work.
“It’s going to use the latest technology to help kickstart nature and allow local shellfish farmers to produce consistently high-quality oysters year-round,” Reed, a Democrat, told a crowd of reporters and oyster enthusiasts Tuesday at the job site.
Tuesday’s event was billed as a groundbreaking, but no ceremonial shovels were wielded and no ceremonial dirt was harmed: Construction work on the Matunuck Shellfish Hatchery and Research Center had actually already started, evidenced by a large piece of earthmoving equipment at the end of the lot across Succotash Road from Raso’s renowned oyster bar. The site is adjacent to where restaurant patrons can park.
Construction on the hatchery is set to be complete sometime later in the year, and when it’s up and running, it will provide local farmers — including but not limited to Raso, whose oyster empire includes the Matunuck Oyster Farm — with the means to grow shellfish. It also will be a hub for research at URI.
“We’ll be able to do breeding for increased resilience to diseases and climate change,” said Marta Gomez-Chiarri, a URI professor and aquatic pathologist. “We’ll be able to develop new species that may make it into your menu in the near future.”
There are currently only a handful of shellfish hatcheries in Rhode Island, including one at Roger Williams University in Bristol. Farmers generally source oyster seeds — juvenile oysters — from out of state. Hatcheries — which in some respects look more like labs than picturesque salt ponds — grow oysters from the very first steps in the process: adult oysters that reproduce in warm, June-like water. The process of spawning, growing, and nurturing eventually produces a seed that can be sold to oyster farms. Those farms then grow the seed the rest of the way into the edible adults that can be shucked and served with mignonette sauce and a slice of lemon.
A Rhode Island-based hatchery will improve the sometimesfickle supply of seed for local farmers, supporters of the project say.
In addition to selling seed to local oyster farmers, the facility also will provide a place for URI experts to do research. For example, they could experiment with pairing different types of oysters together to create a spawn that might be more resilient. It’s similar to other forms of farming, like selecting cattle for hybrid vigor.
“With the tools that we have now, the next 10 years of oyster breeding are going to be extremely exciting,” said Robert Rheault, the executive director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. “We’ll have the perfect shape, fast-growing animals with racing stripes, everything you want.” (He was kidding about the racing stripes.)
Although oysters are probably the best-known product of aquaculture, they’re not the only ones: bay scallops, sea urchin, or potentially seaweed species also could be developed. The Matunuck hatchery will have two main floors and a third-floor mezzanine.
The combined value of Rhode Island aquaculture rebounded in 2021 — after a pandemic slump — to surpass 2019’s level, according to state data. Supporters consider it a growing — literally — industry, and a sustainable one at that.
But the hatchery project comes at a time when opposition to some oyster farms is running high. Proposals have stoked opposition from nearby homeowners, hunters, and anglers, along with recreational boaters. These disputes pit various users of public trust lands against each other, with each side accusing the other of monopolizing shared resources for private benefit.
If they run into opposition, applications to start aquaculture farms can drag on for years at the state’s regulator, the Coastal Resources Management Council.
Rheault’s organization has thrown its support behind a proposal that would do away with the council in its current form.
“We would love to have an independent council with expertise, rather than political appointments who appear to have an agenda,” Rheault said.
One of the aquaculture projects that has stirred controversy is Raso’s own expansion plans in nearby Segar Cove. The application has gone on for years and still hasn’t been resolved.
Raso, who’s been in the business for decades and grew up nearby, said he thinks it would have been difficult if he was starting out now.
“We need to keep talking about how shellfish aquaculture is good for the environment, how it’s a sustainable resource, how it improves the water quality,” Raso said. “I think [we have to] continue to tell that story. But you’ll have resistance regardless.”