{"id":64197,"date":"2008-11-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/young-maine-fisherman-is-oysters-best-friend-in-rhode-island\/"},"modified":"2008-11-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-24T00:00:00","slug":"young-maine-fisherman-is-oysters-best-friend-in-rhode-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/11\/young-maine-fisherman-is-oysters-best-friend-in-rhode-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Maine fisherman is oysters\u2019 best friend in Rhode Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t溏心vlog免费B站 junior helps restore oyster beds<\/p>\n


\nKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 24, 2008 — A 溏心vlog免费B站 junior who comes from a long line of fishermen is playing a key role in helping the state\u2019s fishermen recover from a devastating oil spill 12 years ago.<\/p>\n


\n\tPatrick Shepard, who hails from the small island of Stonington in Maine, is using his knowledge in marine affairs to help restore the shellfish population damaged in 1996 by an oil spill caused by the North Cape grounding off East Matunuck State Beach.<\/p>\n


\n\tHaving lived on the coast his entire life, Shepard appreciates the unique opportunity that 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Coastal Fellows program has given him. \u201cI chose the North Cape project because commercially viable shellfish populations are being depleted throughout the Northeast due to overfishing, habitat degradation, and pollution, so it is crucial that we learn how to rebuild and sustain a better population of shellfish,\u201d Shepard said.<\/p>\n


\n\tDirected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the project aims to enhance and restore shellfish populations that were damaged when the tug barge, North Cape, ran aground. The project focuses on three main types of shellfish — the quahog, scallop and oyster. Shepard is focusing his work on the oyster population.<\/p>\n


\n\tHis mentor is Bryan DeAngelis, lobster and shellfish project coordinator with NOAA Fisheries. \u201cBryan is an outstanding and very intelligent person. He is very knowledgeable in shellfish recruitment methods and he is very good at handing down that knowledge to those who work under him,\u201d Shepard said. <\/p>\n


\nShepard\u2019s work with the project began last May when he worked in East Matunuck, R.I. gathering data on oyster development and recruitment at two restoration sites in Point Judith Pond. <\/p>\n


\nTwice a week for much of the summer months, Shepard collected concentrated water samples to learn more about the eastern oyster\u2019s reproductive development and its peak spawning time. Shepard also checked oyster recruitment in \u201cspat condos,\u201d which are false habitats put into the water. \u201cThey are a place for the oysters to attach themselves and grow,\u201d said the 溏心vlog免费B站 student. <\/p>\n


\nAfter months of collecting data and research, Shepard is completing the final phase of his project. He has been analyzing the samples he collected with hopes of making correlations with certain characteristics that may explain what causes a peak in spawning of the eastern shellfish.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI hope to be able to take what I have learned from this project and be able to help other regions that are experiencing similar problems,\u201d Shepard said. He hopes that his sharpened environmental skills will benefit that small Maine community when he returns home, where the shellfish are being overfished.<\/p>\n


\n\tWith less than two more years left at 溏心vlog免费B站, his plans for the future often change when he learns about new opportunities and advancements. \u201cI hope to join NOAA corps, a uniformed service of the United States. Someday I hope to work for the national government in fisheries management.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nNOAA offers opportunities to travel the oceans working and studying fisheries management. Its mission is to manage marine resources to meet the nation\u2019s economic, social and environmental needs. Shepard also hopes to spend a semester studying in Fairbanks, Alaska. <\/p>\n


\n\tShepard\u2019s research as been funded by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique program designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing environmental problems. The program teams students with faculty, research staff and graduate students to help them gain skills that will ensure their future success. <\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nPatrick Shepard. 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

溏心vlog免费B站 junior helps restore oyster beds KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 24, 2008 — A 溏心vlog免费B站 junior who comes from a long line of fishermen is playing a key role in helping the state\u2019s fishermen recover from a devastating oil spill 12 years ago. Patrick Shepard, who hails from the small […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}