Maria Vasta successfully defends her Master’s Thesis, “Shellfish Farms as Agritourism Destinations: The Growers’ Perspective”

Maria Vasta successfully defended her Master’s thesis, “Shellfish Farms as Agritourism Destinations: The Growers’ Perspective.” This spring, Maria is completing the two-year M.A.M.A. program in URI’s Department of Marine Affairs. Prior to studying at URI, she earned a B.S. in Zoology with a Minor in Marine Biology from the University of New Hampshire. Her interests for the future are diverse and include aquaculture development and impacts, marine conservation, public engagement, and ecotourism.

Her research project, supervised by adviser Tracey Dalton and committee members David Bidwell and Hirotsugu Uchida, examined agritourism in the context of shellfish aquaculture farms. Specifically, Maria investigated what tourism activities are offered on US coastal shellfish farms, what factors motivate growers to develop these activities, and what challenges are in place preventing certain growers from implementing these activities. Her project revealed that a variety of agritourism activities are currently being offered on shellfish farms along the East and Pacific coasts of the United States, ranging from impromptu farm tours to farm festivals to workshops. Her research findings also suggest that many shellfish growers believe that providing public education and outreach is a strong motivation for the development of tourism on shellfish farms. There are a number of challenges in place preventing growers from offering tourism on their farms, the biggest of which were found to be lack of time, lack of resources, and lack of infrastructure. Since the shellfish growers surveyed for this research as a whole agreed with the motivations for offering agritourism on their farms, regulators and managers wishing to encourage growers to adopt these activities may want to focus on ameliorating the challenges preventing some growers from offering agritourism. Maria hopes her research will help inform coastal regulators, shellfish growers, and the public about this emerging use of coastal space, and hopes to elaborate on this project further in the future after she leaves URI.