Dan Ward of Ward Aquafarms has been growing oysters since 2012 and has experimented with a variety of other things over the years, bay scallops and sugar kelp for instance, and most recently tautog.
“I started oyster farming because that is what we can do, growing oysters and clams is viable,” Ward said. “I need to keep the lights on and once they are on, you can branch out.”
Ward was standing near two tanks of a few dozen rotini-size brown and black mottled fish in a back corner of a hatchery on the Pocasset River in Bourne. The hatchery, the second on the Cape, came online last year and was prompted by a need to grow more bay scallops; it came about by investing in a marina to help pay the bills.
Ward’s professional life has been a meld of practical and visionary, academic research and the business of fishing.
