The Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group has gained more autonomy for the use of the state hatchery in Oak Bluffs after a bill passed allowing a long-term lease.
John T. Hughes, of Vineyard Haven, a long-time fixture on the waterfront, was honored last Friday by colleagues and friends for his years of work in marine resource conservation at the old Massachusetts State Lobster Hatchery. For his efforts, he received the much coveted Dr. David L. Belding Award, recognizing his spirit and enthusiasm in the work he did for lobster and aquaculture.
John Hughes, former longtime director of the Vineyard’s lobster hatchery, will be honored by the state Division of Marine Fishers on Friday, March 23.
Mr. Hughes will be presented with the Belding Award, given to those who go above and beyond the call of duty to promote the conservation and sustainable use of the commonwealth’s marine resources.
The award will be presented to Mr. Hughes at 1:30 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission office in Oak Bluffs. The occasion also marks Mr. Hughes’s 90th birthday.
John T. Hughes, the former longtime director of the Massachusetts State Lobster Hatchery on the Vineyard, will be honored by the state Division of Marine Fisheries next month, which will present him with the Belding Award.
Created in 1989 to honor individuals who in the opinion of the state Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission have done the most to promote the conservation and sustainable use of the commonwealth’s marine resources, the award is named for Dr. David L. Belding, a distinguished doctor and marine biologist who died in 1972.
An overhaul of the shuttered state lobster hatchery in Oak Bluffs has been approved by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the commonwealth will now invest a significant sum of money to rehabilitate the facility for use by the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Cape and Islands Rep. Timothy Madden announced yesterday.
Mr. Madden said the state DMF has agreed to invest at least $250,000 in the project in phases. Work began this week to replace the plumbing in the old hatchery that sits on the eastern side of the Lagoon Pond in Oak Bluffs.
A top state fisheries official told a Vineyard gathering on Friday afternoon that it is not feasible to restore the 61-year-old state lobster hatchery — at least not for raising young lobsters for release.
“We have no evidence that we did enhance the wild population to any significant degree at all,” said Paul Diodati, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “That and the cost in the past 10 years of government has become a real concern. Funding has withered,” he added.