University of Southern Mississippi Starts Construction on Oyster Hatchery
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) recently announced that construction has begun on a new oyster hatchery at its Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center (TCMAC) Cedar Point campus in Ocean Springs, Miss., according to a news release. The facility was designed to address declining oyster harvests along the Gulf Coast, and it has an estimated completion date of late summer or early fall 2026.
According to university news, the new facility will be capable of producing up to a billion eyed larvae per year to use in research and restoration. The hatchery will use a recirculating, closed system isolated from the outside environment to create ideal research conditions, allowing experiments regarding larviculture, disease, genetis, and reproduction to be observed and replicated.
The university partnered with state and federal agencies to secure $14 million from the Mississippi Legislature and the RESTORE Act between 2016 and 2020.
“We are excited to finally have this project underway. We thank MDEQ and the state for their commitment to this project and for seeing it through the long path it’s taken,” said Dr. Reginald Blaylock, TCMAC director. “We are confident that the research done in this new hatchery will expand opportunities in the oyster industry for both public and private stakeholders.”
During the last two decades, Mississippi has seen its oyster population decline due to factors like disease, extreme weather, overharvesting, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and more. In 2004, 500,000 sacks of oysters were harvested from the state’s public reefs; it harvested zero sacks in 2019.
“The new oyster hatchery and research center will further GCRL’s mission of advancing scientific discovery to benefit society and enable us to be a continued resource for the state,” said Dr. Kelly Darnell, GCRL director. “This state-of-the-art facility will allow our researchers and students to develop and test new and innovative technologies and achieve even greater advances in aquaculture.”
About the Author
Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].