Rick Karney, a pioneer in the field of shellfish aquaculture, will be speaking atthe Block Island Maritime Institute (BIMI) on Tuesday, August 23, at 7 p.m. His Tuesday Talk is entitled, “We spawn millions – shellfish culture on Martha’s Vineyard.” Come listen, learn, and hear stories from a lifelong shellfish advocate, with lessons for us on Block Island.Rick is the Director Emeritus of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc. (MVSG), and served as its shellfish biologist and director for 41 years from 1976 to 2017. The MVSG is a nonprofit consortium of the shellfish departments of the six towns on Martha’s Vineyard.During his tenure at the MV Shellfish Group, Karney carried out a successful community-based resource development program for the commercially important shellfish species on Martha’s Vineyard. Management efforts concentrated on the development of hatchery and field aquaculture methods for shellfish and the operation of the nation’s first public solar shellfish hatchery. In the mid 1990s with a $500,000 National Marine Fisheries Service grant, Karney conducted a shellfish aquaculture retraining program for fishermen displaced by fishing closures onGeorges Bank.In 2001, Karney was awarded the Gulf of Maine Visionary Award by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine
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