1.) Armand DeLuca, whom Kim Tetrault ’83 calls one of his “most dedicated volunteers,” stands in the shellfish hatchery that he and other volunteers built for SPAT last year.
DeLuca started working for SPAT seven years ago as an oyster gardener; now he and fellow volunteer Otto Schmid oversee the hatchery, sit on the Cornell Cooperative Extension advisory committee, and even make presentations at international aquaculture conferences.
The tank DeLuca is leaning against is a larval-rearing conical, which holds 100 gallons of salt water and 1 million larvae, or seed. A week after hatching the larvae have tripled in size, though to the naked eye they just look like brown specks floating in the water.