Nor are scallops mobile enough to quickly recolonize large areas from which they have been wiped out. We're working on a multipronged approach, producing as many seeds as we can,'' said Gregg Rivara, who directs aquaculture activities at the Cornell extension in Riverhead. A total of 35,000 seeds are being placed this way, in contained areas like lagoons and creeks where brown tide is less likely to bloom. Commercial seeding outfits also exist. Rob Parrino was a bayman for 15 years before starting an aquaculture business in Southold four years ago.
Aquaculture is the wave of the future.
I'm using science and technology and growing my own. I can mechanically harvest shellfish when baymen have to do everything by hand. They spawn in the summer of their second year. The larvae attach to eelgrass to protect themselves from predators like crabs, and gradually fall to the bottom as they grow. After 12 months, the larvae have developed into ''bugs,'' one-inch, immature scallops.