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Photo Derek Burritt
Cultch at Indian Neck |
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Dermo weakens shellfish market
By Derek Burritt
Banner Staff
WELLFLEET — This summer, the effects of last fall’s Dermo outbreak are being seen in the wild.
Dermo, or Perkinsus marinus, is a waterborne parasite that devastated shellfishing grants in Wellfleet last fall, while affecting other areas of the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard to lesser degrees. Andy Koch, Wellfleet shellfish constable, says the disease is particularly demoralizing to shellfishermen because it kills the oyster just as the animal reaches its 3-inch legal harvest size.
Maps provided by Barnstable County’s Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and the Southeastern Massachusetts Aquaculture Center (SEMAC) show that for oysters spawned in 2005 and sampled in fall 2006, Dermo was found in 100 percent of Wellfleet oysters at an intensity of 3 to 4 on a scale of 0 to 5 (a measure of how badly they had it on average). These figures are the highest in the county.
Koch says currently Wednesdays and Sundays are typically the busiest shellfishing days, with 200 recreational shellfishermen out at Indian Neck. But the commercial fishermen are having a rough time fishing in the wild, with common reports claiming it takes about three hours to get 120 oysters. Koch says last summer at Blackfish Creek a shellfisherman could get a bushel of oysters a tide, any day of the week. “This year, you’re hard-pressed to get 200 a tide,” says Koch.
Typically a five- to 10-percent death rate is expected, and Koch says “everyone across the board is reporting deaths.” Koch himself has already seen a roughly 10-percent death rate in 220 oysters moved from a closed area near the Chequessett Neck Road Dike to a town-owned grant in anticipation of a possible fall relay. He says it’s not significant that the 10-percent mark has already been reached ahead of September, which last year proved to be a brutal month for Dermo deaths. He says a 60-percent survival rate in any crop is a realistic expectation.
Dermo is in one sense a strange disease, because it can wipe out one grant and leave another one 300 yards away in not-bad shape. In another way it’s predictable in that staving off the parasite is linked to an animal’s immune system. Koch says the general rule of thumb is that wild oysters are more likely to fight disease because they’re typically not as crowded as grant oysters, and they haven’t been bred to exhibit special characteristics like hatchery oysters, which are genetically altered to grow quickly. But now, a short walk around any of Wellfleet’s wild shellfishing spots reveals multitudes of gaping shells.
Koch says in talking with shellfishermen, he’s heard this shortage of wild shellfish has forced restaurants to take a lesser quality oyster for more money. Dermo poses no risk to humans, said Koch, and the “lesser quality” is in the oysters’ shape and appearance — its “presentation.” He says harvesters have told him even the wholesalers are “taking whatever they can get,” because there’s still a strong market demand for Wellfleet oysters. Even so, this higher price due to demand only offsets the limited profit potential caused by a weak supply.
In addition to growing issues, Wellfleet shellfishermen are also facing greater market competition as many more communities on the Cape and all along the East Coast are focusing on shellfishing. These other areas are also susceptible to Dermo, and since reappearing in Chesapeake Bay in 1990 after a three-decade absence, the parasite has spread to regions in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Maine. For an undetermined reason, it has hit Wellfleet particularly hard.
Koch has also observed that over the last few years quahogs are taking longer to reach legal harvest size. When he started shellfishing in 1994, he pulled 80 percent of his crop out in two years. Now, it’s taking four to five years to take a harvest. This means farmers are sitting on their money longer while having to plant seed each year to guarantee future harvests. Koch also says prices have fallen off over the last 10 years. Back then, he said, the going rate was up to 23 cents per littleneck, but now that figure is typically 17 cents, going as low as 13 cents.
In Koch’s opinion, water quality is playing a role in the deteriorated growing conditions. He also says, as do many shellfishermen, “these things cycle.” There are signs of hope in the form of tiny brown spots on fresh cultch at Indian Neck. In two years these “blemishes” should be harvestable oysters — if they can survive the sea drills, red tide and Dermo.
dburritt@provincetownbanner.com
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Aug 9th, 2007