Seed Production

Shellfish seed production cycle begins at the Shellfish Group's Solar-assisted Hatchery (at right) on the shore of Lagoon Pond in Tisbury, Massachusetts.  Constructed in 1980 during the energy crisis, the facility was the nation's first public solar shellfish hatchery.

All the species produced by MVSG (quahogs, oysters, and bay scallops) are spawned and cultured through planktonic larval stages in the solar hatchery.  After setting (metamorphosis), the juvenile shellfish are transferred to the Group's Shellfish Nursery on Chappaquiddick Island in Edgartown (at right) for further growth in upweller silos.

Eventually, the juvenile shellfish are moved to field nursery systems outside the Hatchery  and throughout the waters of the member towns.  Here they grow in warm surface waters protected from predators for one season before being bottom planted on public beds.

	Growing Algae The shellfish raised by the MVSG are all filter-feeding bivalves.  Bivalves feed on phytoplankton (microscopic algae).  Learn about the species and strains of phytoplankton  grown at the hatchery. Learn More
	Species Produced Information about the shellfish species that we produce. Learn More
	Seed Shellfish Distribution Reports Each year the Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group publishes a Seed Shellfish Distribution Report. You can find our reports from as far back at 1999. Learn More