From: Nancy Civetta Sent: Friday, September 18, 2020 12:55 PM To: Jordan Avery Pitt Subject: RE: Shellfish Locations in Wellfleet Hi Jordan, I am bringing this to the next Shellfish Advisory Board meeting on Oct. 6 and will get back to you right after. Many thanks for providing these answers. I'll also let you know if there are any other questions. Thank you, Nancy Nancy Civetta Shellfish Constable Town of Wellfleet C: 617-901-7193 O: 508-349-0325 E: nancy.civetta@wellfleet-ma.gov 300 Main St. Wellfleet, MA 02667 Check for news and updates on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=238213856606291&ref=content_filter -------- Original message -------- From: Jordan Avery Pitt Date: 9/18/20 11:59 (GMT-05:00) To: Nancy Civetta Subject: Re: Shellfish Locations in Wellfleet Hi Nancy, I just wanted to check in to see if you had any other questions for me. Have a nice day, Jordan From: Jordan Avery Pitt Sent: Monday, August 31, 2020 1:20 PM To: Nancy Civetta Subject: Re: Shellfish Locations in Wellfleet Hi Nancy, Thanks for getting back to me. Answers for the Questions: - I need 10 of each species if possible. - My results will be reported to Woods Hole Sea Grant, you all if you are interested, and probably written up in a paper to be published in a scientific journal. Please let me know if you want more details on the reporting. Comments: - I definitely agree that microplastics are found in a lot of different places, including drinking water and the air we breathe. I definitely am not expecting that seafood will be a major route of exposure for people at all, and do not want to hype the presence of microplastics in shellfish. We will be getting these samples from different sites around Cape Cod and will be including fish, water, and sediment samples in addition to the shellfish we are sampling. We are wanting to collect samples to get a better estimate of the environmental concentrations of plastic. A lot of the scientific studies that have looked for harmful effects have been done with concentrations that are predicted to be way too high, and so we are wanting to figure out how big that mismatch is. I am happy to talk more about your concerns if you want. - Do you have any propagated blue mussels that I would be able to have access to? Thank you for your time and please feel free to reach out with any other questions or concerns that you have. Jordan Jordan Pitt PhD Candidate in Biological Oceanography at MIT/WHOI Joint Program jpitt@mit.edu / C: 512-538-5659 From: Nancy Civetta Sent: Friday, August 28, 2020 12:59 PM To: Jordan Avery Pitt Subject: RE: Shellfish Locations in Wellfleet Hi Jordan, We have a couple questions: -How many samples of each species are needed? -Where do your results go? How will they be reported? And some comments: -We know that microplastics are found in many foods and even in drinking water, so we are concerned about damage to this already-suffering industry due to COVID. -We have limited soft shell clams here and only ribbed mussels, which are not a commercial species. -We do have plenty of oysters and quahogs. I look forward to learning more about your research and reporting. Thank you, Nancy Nancy Civetta Shellfish Constable Town of Wellfleet C: 617-901-7193 O: 508-349-0325 E: nancy.civetta@wellfleet-ma.gov 300 Main St. Wellfleet, MA 02667 Check for news and updates on Facebook. From: Jordan Avery Pitt Sent: Monday, August 24, 2020 1:42 PM To: Nancy Civetta Subject: Shellfish Locations in Wellfleet Hello Nancy, I am currently studying the microplastic content in some species of shellfish and fish around Cape Cod with Woods Hole Sea Grant. I spoke at the Barnstable County Shellfish Advisory Committee meeting last year about microplastics. I was wondering if you knew of any locations around Wellfleet where I could find wild soft-shell clams, quahogs, oysters, and mussels, and if it would be acceptable for me to collect some for sampling? I have a scientific permit from DMF for the sampling that I am doing if that helps. Thank you for your time, Jordan Pitt Jordan Pitt PhD Candidate in Biological Oceanography at MIT/WHOI Joint Program jpitt@mit.edu