Sarasota Bay Watch receives aquaculture lease to raise clams for bay restoration

SARASOTA COUNTY – Sarasota Bay Watch Inc. recently has received approval for an underwater aquaculture lease for clam restoration and research.

This is the first lease of its type – dedicated strictly to research and restoration purposes, as opposed to the commercial ventures that the state has been approving for more than two decades.

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Sarasota Bay Watch Executive Director Ronda Ryan said what sets the nonprofit’s lease on the underwater plot apart from previous leases is that all the clams will be used for waterfront restoration purposes only.

The lease agreement with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) Division of Aquaculture gives Sarasota Bay Watch the rights to raise and distribute southern hard-shell clams to improve regional water quality.

The clams, which have a lifespan of up to 30 years, can each filter more than 30 gallons of water per day.

Sarasota Bay Watch has a five-year lease on the 4.5-acre plot, which will also be used for scientific research.

“We’re following the science, we’re supporting the science and we’re very honored to be the first group that’s been given this opportunity,” Ryan said.

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Cameras and acoustic receivers will be placed on site to monitor predation on the farmed clams.

Sediment studies will also be conducted to see where the clams do best.

Scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium are already conducting studies of the Sarasota Bay Watch planting sites to determine what environment gives the hard shell clams a better chance of survival.

Gulf Shellfish Institute’s Executive Director Steven Hesterberg said in a prepared statement that Sarasota Bay Watch continues to lead by example.

“The establishment of a shellfish lease specifically for restoration is the first of its kind in our state and a model for returning ecologically vital bivalve mollusks back into our estuaries," Hesterberg said.

Sarasota Bay Watch started its effort to improve water quality in Sarasota Bay by seeding scallop larvae into the bay.

It switched to clams as a more efficient method more than four years ago. The first large-scale introduction of clams occurred in May 2018.

To date, the volunteer effort has raised 1.525 million clams for planting in Sarasota Bay.

So far this year, volunteers have released 650,000 into the bay, with a goal of increasing that to a total of 1 million for the 2022 calendar year.

Prior to the lease agreement, the clams used by Sarasota Bay Watch were all grown by clam farmers in the Boca Grande area.

Just as with the scallop larvae, the nonprofit relies on baby clams hatched at Terra Cia-based Bay Shellfish Co., owned and operated by Curt Hemmel.

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The local aquaculture lease will give Sarasota Bay Watch clams a place to grow and hopefully spawn in the wild, as they achieve full size and are later placed elsewhere in the Sarasota Bay.

“It also reduces the restoration project cost because you’re not having to deal with the transportation and the materials to move them,” Ryan noted.

It takes about 18 months for a clam to grow to a size suitable for placement on a restoration site.

Charlie Culpepper, Assistant Director Division of Aquaculture at FDACS, noted that the state modified its lease language to allow for the restoration use.

The clams in the lease area are protected by law against harvesting from outside parties.

Other community partners praised the expanding effort to use clams to filter the bay waters.

Other community partners also see this as a win for the local ecosystem.

“Coastal Conservation Association is a proud partner of SBW and our missions are closely aligned. It is critical that we continue to restore our coastal ecosystems and clean the water, and clams do both,” Brian Gorski, executive director of Coastal Conservation Association Florida said in a prepared statement. “As filter feeding organisms, clams are especially efficient at filtering the water, removing nitrogen, and storing carbon.”

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Bay Watch awarded lease to raise clams for restoration