Dana Pazolt is a big, tough commercial fisherman, but right now he is more concerned to set up oyster farm to earn good living. The longtime Truro lobsterman has a good reason to be interested in the well-being of young shellfish. Last week Pazolt applied to the town of Truro for permission to start up an oyster farm in the waters off his family’s property on Shore Road.
Pazolt said that cultivating shellfish at the surface rather than at the bottom reduces the threat of predation by starfish and snails. He feels he is ahead of the game because, as owner of the 40-foot commercial fishing vessel Black Sheep, he already has “the most expensive piece of the puzzle” — the boat he’ll need to tend the cages.
The prospective shellfish farmer says it’s essential to have a relatively calm place where you can nurture the baby oysters. He wants to be able to keep them for one year in Moon Pond, where “they got the feed, they got the water temperatures, they got the flow,” and then move them into their open water cages, where they’ll get the pounding that helps them develop tough shells.
