Life on the Line

A group of students from the School of Journalism spent their semester learning about and researching water in our very own city of Boston. They completed six individual projects, coming together to form The City of Water, which discusses everything from the issues with water infrastructure and who it hurts, to marine life and how it is affected by pollution, to the Boston Harbor’s history, hidden below the surface. Salem State Professor Ted Maney works in the Cat Cove Marine Lab, one of only three aquaculture centers in Massachusetts, specializing in shellfish. As the first step, mussels are grown in the lab’s hatchery, later to be put on lines off-shore once they grow large enough.“Before I retire I at least want to get us on the way to making it commercially viable,” Maney says. Maney assembles a hydrophone which is used to listen to whale migrations. This tool helps monitor activity around the farm to make sure that no whales become entangled in the mussel lines. Additionally, the lines used are of the “breakaway” type, so no whales get harmed.

Students Emma Samek, Anh Mai Srisuk, Jake Stout, and Camila Verdes took a look at Salem State Professor Ted Maney’s innovative new method of raising mussels: offshore farming. This change in mussel farming protects local species and prevents disease. They were able to capture the way his mussels go from his farm to your table. Check out the full project here.