Aquaculture
Aquaculture
The East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery was launched in 1989 after the town decided to undertake a serious shellfish seeding program or aquaculture, because of the region- wide series of smothering algae blooms that first appeared in 1985 and devastated the area’s shellfish resources. Housed in one of the last remaining structures from the World War II Naval Torpedo Range on the shore of Fort Pond Bay in Montauk, its development was made possible by a grant to East Hampton Town by New York State. Aquaculture, or aqua-farming, is the farming of aquatic organisms like fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and aquatic plants. This poetic film is a portrait of the hatchery’s efforts to replicate the delicate and complex conditions of the sea, in a controlled environment.