DE SHELLFISH AQUACULTURE: K-12 TRAINING TO SUPPORT AN EMERGING INDUSTRY

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) has promulgated the necessary regulations to oversee the nascent shellfish aquaculture industry. After an initial flurry of interest in the leasing program for space in the Shellfish Aquaculture Development Areas (SADA), there have been only a limited number of adopters. Ongoing efforts, funded in part by a FY 2021 CBG, by DSU Cooperative Extension (PI - McIntosh) and the DE Sea Grant (DE SG) Marine Advisory Service (co-PI Hale), are assisting new and prospective growers learn how to farm shellfish, and are introducing K-12 teachers and students (co-PIs Christopher and Dupont) to aquaculture in new and exciting ways. Through these efforts, it has become apparent that there is unmet demand for more formalized aquaculture training materials for use in Delaware, especially for middle and high school students. Our goal through this current proposal is to work in conjunction with educational partners (DE Department of Education, FFA, 4-H, school districts, teachers, etc.) to develop more formalized aquaculture training materials for use in STEM classrooms statewide, pilot curriculum activities and create demonstration aquaculture systems at a minimum of one school in each partner district.Collectively our planned activities will allow DSU to continue to fulfill its mission to 'enhance the recruitment and preparation of talented professionals to contribute to a sustainable, global community,' by addressing the following three objectives:Compile and review existing aquaculture curricula/training materials (Christopher with help from McIntosh, Hale and Dupont).Develop a DE aquaculture training manual (Christopher with help from Dupont).Create a multi-institutional (articulated) undergraduate aquaculture course (McIntosh with help from Dupont and Hale).