THE OYSTER IS OUR WORLD

OCEAN CITY MARYLAND 2012

2012-01-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

So this is just a quick run through of what we had in OC so if you missed it here is your recap...

We brought the oyster counter with us...Irv flat out said we weren't selling it after we started our demonstrations with it because he wants to use it,... no worries we have more.

We now have a sweet tank up-weller in our line of helpful things to run an oyster farm successfully. You can buy this as you see it, as a kit or just the tank.

Close up of the oyster counter. We will soon have this in line with a small hopper conveyor and washing tube feeding this puppy. So washing, counting, and bagging/boxing can all be done in one step.

Seed tube visible in foreground....1/4"-1/2" hole sizes...makes upweller sorting a breeze!

We were able to spread out a bit more this year, so cages and such on one side and equipment on the other.

These new wire bins are made of 8g galvanized 3x3, they come in a 3x3x3 or 3x4x3 size, can purchased built or in a kit. They are sweet for holding random stuff especially if its heavy. We store our wood in these bins for use in the winter and move them around with the tractor.

More stuff...oh yeah! I did find BIODEGRADABLE shell netting(not pictured) in case anyone is interested, just give me a shout. This stuff is light and temp sensitive so it should work on a shoreline.

QuickTube Sorter...we now have several tube sizes available in Aluminum and Stainless Steel, get your order in now so you can have it for the new season.

3x3 or 4.5x4.5 we have bag cages to suit your every need. How big or how small do you want to go?

The oyster farming standards...3x4 Lowpros 1"x1" and .5"x.5", also seen is a 4x4 made with 12.5g 1"x1" and 10.5g legs...this cage will last a while...oh yeah its a triple stack, you need a big crane.

Flip floats and taylor floats.

Bags and float bags. We got a container in December and they were pretty much all gone by New Years...we have 9mm sealed left and we are placing a container order now. If you need bags and you want the best price call us now. Intermas finally raised their prices after years...literally years of holding prices, so our price went up by $0.25 per bag, not the end of the world but it did go up, best price is still volume pre-order.

Another shot of the tank upweller. It can hold 700K 1/4" seed easy...not sure who holds 1/4" seed... you should be sorting that out and moving it along, so the capacity on this system (with the right pump--not included, but we can show you some options) is well past the 700K for number of oysters you can run thru it.

And of course what would the OC show be without our oysters on Friday night!!!

SUMMERTIME DAILY GRIND

2011-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

Emptying cages into the hopper

Buckets from the tank upweller, waiting to be sorted

Emptying tanks of seed

Sorting, sorting , and more sorting....keeps the fast growers moving ahead, allows for better water flow through the seed when the are the same size, shapes up them up, and cleans them up

Cages going to water for splitting oysters

New shipment of bags arrived and we are already out of all 13mm and 23mm sizes...we have open 9mm, sealed 9mm and 4mmsealed as well. The best way to get what you want is to pre-order and if you know you are going to use alot of bags order in volume so we can get you even better pricing than we currently offer. We won't be seeing any new bags coming in for a few months because the factory goes on vacation for the month of July.

We always have your oyster gardening needs in stock; floats, bags, float bags, taylor floats, flip floats, and ofcourse oyster seed. What a great way to have a yummy source of food at the end of your dock that also benefits the Bay!

Wire wire everywhere...just let us know what kind you need... we only carry RIVERDALE MILLS wire because it is the best hands down. Wire should be seen as an investment so it should last longer than 1-2 years...our cages have been in the water for over 10 years and are still producing product.

Managing the tank upwellers

Offloading oysters to be sorted

Seed in the buckets...its still amazing that those little guys will be 3'+ oysters in less than a year

Cleaning the tanks is essential to healthy seed growth

PICTURES FROM THE 2011 OCEAN CITY SHOW

2011-01-31T18:50:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from the picture things were hopping this past weekend. Nod to the sweet black long sleeve gear...way to go Irv and Steph, good call, those are all available on line, even though the pictures aren't up yet just ask for them.

Some of our oysters ready to be slurped back.

Boys were furiously shucking trying to get nice and ahead of the crowd, major hats off to the MD watermen shuckers!!!

Before the crowd arrived.

After...

Johnny Shockley took home the award for best promotion of a product...way to go guys!!!

Some of the equipment we haulled up to OC

Yes, this is a different upweller, it is a prototype of a miny paddlewheel upweller, it is fully functional, but it illustrates the point that we can do all kinds of upwelling systems for folks.

CBOC AT OCEAN CITY TRADE SHOW THIS WEEKEND

2011-01-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

!!! SHOW SPECIAL !!!

Oyster Farm Starter Kits

SAVE $400 DOLLARS

Everything you need in order to raise 50,000 oysters!!!!

Listed below are two options for the oyster farm starter kits. The only difference between the two options is that one uses bags for all seed stages until the oysters are large enough to go directly into the 1”x1” cages and the other uses ½” x ½” mesh cages for the seed once it gets large enough.
Option A
Quantity                               Item
25 -               3x4 1”x1” cages w/ bridle and tag lines
30 -               4mm grow out bags
100-              9mm grow out bags
260 -             S-hooks
1 -                 200’ Longline
2 -                 4’ Hex anchors
50,000-         ¼” seed***
Price $4800*

Option B
Quantity                               Item
18 -               3x4 1”x1” cages w/ bridle and tag lines
7 -                 3x4 ½”x ½” cages w/ bridle and tag lines
40 -              4mm grow out bags
60 -              S-hooks
1 -               200’ Longline
2 -              4’ Hex anchors
50,000       ¼” seed***
Price $4800*

*Sale requires $3000 down payment at Ocean City Show, $1000 due upon delivery** of equipment, and $800 due upon delivery of seed.

**Delivery fee will apply; we just charge for the cost of delivery, no crazy shipping and handling fees. Delivery estimates available.

***Seed is typically available between June and August

If you are at the show and want to get some of our oysters be sure you purchase some seafood gala event tickets...remember the oysters always go fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20011 TIME TO GET STARTED

2011-01-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

CHESAPEAKE BAY OYSTER COMPANY

OFFICE HOURS 9AM-5PM

CONTACT INFO:

email - sales@bayoyster.com

phone- 804-338-6530, 804-776-0220

fax- 804-776-0703

WEBSITE LINK

YOUTUBE LINK

FACEBOOK LINK

LARGE SCALE METHOD FOR OYSTER GROW-OUT BAGS

2010-10-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

Other countries have been farming oysters a lot longer than us here in the States and so they have some industrial sized operations going on. If you like growing in oyster bags I thought these pictures might give you some ideas of what you could do in the future with a little rebar, some welding, a water column permit, and a whole lot of bags. This is like "rack and bag" on steroids!

Each one of these units is hoisted in and out of the water by crane.

Bags can be placed in rebar containers and then filled with oysters and closed.

Notice the rebar pins that keep the bags in place, also notice the black rubber strap with the "s" hook, it has and end that fits into the hole in the bag but won't slip out, easy to install and works nice...here's a picture of some below...we can get these if you are interested.

Alot of companies, will harvest their markets and then store them in the water until they have an order to fill. These baskets are nice because you can pre-count your product not just pre-sort. Also, check out the triangular basket in the background, it looks like it has a pvc piece running through its center so it can spin around, I'm assuming it is for seed growout...interesting, I'll look into that.
This gives a good view of the feet.

Close-up on the rebar pin(simple) and those bag closures.

Great video of these cages or similar ones at work...and no, this is not a local oyster farm I think its in the UK somewhere...either way cool video...notice its one buoy to several cages, deep water, and they are using the rod to close the bags...can get those if interested.

For all of you who are patiently waiting for bags to arrive the container is still scheduled to be here by the end of October begining of November. We'll post it once they are in.

REMEMBER THAT SEED???

2010-09-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here's that seed from this spring ABOVE and here it is again BELOW from two days ago. We've said it before don't wait until the fall; get your seed as early as you can. If you don't want to wait on us or other guys get yourself some type of upweller system so you can get your seed direct from the hatcheries as soon as its ready.
Now it doesn't just majically get big without some help.
Got to upwell. There are three tanks in this picture plus two floating upwellers in the background.
We sort the seed out of the upwellers at 1/2" and send it out directly in .5"x.5" cages.
Then we start splitting...
and sorting...
and building lots of .5"x.5" cages...we had a lot of seed...
more sorting and splitting....
lots more...its exponetial...1-2-4-8-16 and so on until you reach that final density for growout.
cages coming in
Splitting seed on the farm, we do this twice before it comes back in for sorting.
Older seed coming in to be sorted, it will go back out in two different grades typically.
Running older seed in QuickTube...huge help, it mows through a hopper of oysters like this and you end up with a good pre-cull for later...we are selling this stuff right now, it blew up over the last month.

Splitting again...this is the KEY to having beautiful oysters in short order... but you need to be on it every two to four weeks depending on how fast your stuff is growing...2-3weeks for us.

GOT SEED????

2010-05-28T14:34:00.001-07:00

OYSTER SEED IS AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CALL STEPHANIE AND ASK FOR PRICING AT 804-338-6530

If you have an order in with us we should be contacting you soon. If you just need a few thousand for your garden, call Steph and swing over and pick them up. Don't forget we are at the Irvinigton Farmers Market every month with all of our goodies. That is the first Saturday of each month until November.

This is how small the seed was after we had it for a week...it was half that size to start. Your seed will been sorted and ready for you at whatever size you are looking for...3/16", 1/4", 1/2" and up. Prices vary by size.

Splitting Seed in Half by Half Cages

2010-04-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Probably the thing that trips up most new oyster farmers is falling behind on seed work.

When oysters, especially when they are young, have warm water and lots of food they grow FAST!!! If you loaded a bag about a quater full of 1/2" seed today in about two weeks during the growing season you could easily have 1/2 to 3/4 full bag of oysters. If you let that go another two weeks you'll have a solid brick of oysters and the beautiful minature half shell style oysters will start to get real crazy looking as they run into one another reaching for more water and room. It can be an expensive and discouraging mistake to make.
After years of fighting bags and working our tails off to stay on top of our seed (often to no avail)we finally started using .5"x.5" low profile cages to do all of our seed work out on the farm.

Now, we haven't completely gone away from bags because when the seed is humming out of the upweller and it needs a place to go yet its too small for .5"x.5" we put them in 4mm bags. We'll let them ride there for two weeks then into the half by halfs if we are in a pinch. The best scenario is to run them long enough in the upweller so they can go directly into the half by half cages.
A couple of things are great about the half by half cages...
1. Holds a lot of oyster seed
2. Easy to open and close
3. Can be split out on the water in a rapid fashion
4. Can hold the oysters all the way to a size compatible with our 1x1 cages

When we are doing seed splits we will hoist a cage on deck and dump it on the bow as seen in these two pictures.
Once its on the bow we will fill orange bushels to a desired level, usually 3/4's full and we'll use that volume as our guage for reloading the cages to go back in the water. So we will add 3/4's of a bushel to the top and bottom of a lowpro cage.
The amout of oysters that are left over will vary depending on how long you waited to do a split, but those oysters as seen in the picture above will go in another empty cage that we brought out with us. If you want to cut the bill on your seed just hang the bushels over the side and shak'em up until they are nice and clean, we only do that if we let a cage get really loaded or if there is just a lot of junk and we want to rinse it out of the oysters for a fresh start.

Check out the video...

The bottom line seems to be no matter what you end up doing stay on top of giving your oysters room to grow.

UPWELLING AND UPWELLERS

2010-02-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

If you want to grow a volume of oysters you need to buy a bunch of seed and at $25/1000 a million oysters gets expensive. So this would be the first reason to have your own upweller. An upweller allows you to purchase seed directly from a hatchery at a much smaller size and price. Right now 2mm seed from a hatchery wil run you anywhere from $7-9/1000 based on strains and genetic characteristics (triploid/diploid). Picture with penny shows 2mm seed.

Some hatcheries will even go a little cheaper by selling it to you a bit smaller say .5mm, this gets a little tricky for some because .5mm is SUPER SMALL!! This stuff acts like dust once it gets dry and will blow away and its near impossible to varify the count (infact we wonder if the counts at this size are as accurate).

What is upwelling and why does it work?

You can upwell or downwell; one moves water up, one moves water down...the diagram explains it better.

When you are trying to set spat on microculch (tiny pieces of oyster shell) to get single oysters a method known as downwelling is used and is most frequently a closed system (recirculating water). Once the spat are set upwelling is used and it can be an open or closed system but the methods we will refer to are all open systems or flow through.
Upwelling brings a constant supply of nutrient rich water past your animals. All they need to do is open up and feed, which they do constantly as long as the food is in the water. This method produces hearty oysters in short order that continue to feed at a rapid pace when placed out on the farm.

BUCKET UPWELLERS
Since our spat come so small we use a bucket upwelling system first.

As you can see in the picture its a series of buckets (in this case literal 5 gal buckets) that have mesh in the bottom and hold the seed. The buckets are in 4x10 tanks. Water is brought into the tank from a 4" pump (low pressure high flow) which fills the tank and the only way for the water to escape is to pass up through the buckets, taking the algae rich water passed the young oysters. The water is then sent back into the bay. Bucket upwelling is a simple priciple that can be applied to any size tank, container, or bucket. This method is great for handling small seed but inorder to get speed and volume it is essential to move to a floating upweller system.

FLOATING UPWELLERS
We reccomend and offer two kinds of floating upweller systems...BIG and BIGGER.
Both systems operate on a similar principle...remove water from a trough, the trough is filled back up by a silo and the seed sits in the silos. The big one is an 8x20 floating dock with a fanblade sumersible pump that moves the water out of a trough @ 800gpm and can handle 1million animals. The bigger one is a 20x30 floating dock that uses a paddlewheel to move the water out @3000gpm or more, and handles 10 million or more animals and is expandable.
Bonuses to these systems are...
- cheap to run
- high rates of growth
- high animal capacities
They are inexpensive to run because you are moving the water laterally so gravity and equilibrium take care of the rest of the work.

8x20 FLOATING UPWELLER
$5000 KIT
When you buy the entire kit you get everything pictured above and we supply the hardware and instructions so you can build the frame below (you purchase the wood on your own).

Upweller floating dock finished with doors, ready to launch. Below in use with doors up, doors are optional, make for a nice working surface when shut, and looks just like a floating dock. Complete upweller assembled and deployed $8500.

PADDLE WHEEL UPWELLER
Cleaning upweller (note the gantry for hoisting)
Paddle wheel assembly being hoisted into place. Assembly cost $19,500...Includes, paddles, drive, chain, sprockets, speed control, motor, chassis, safety housing, shaft and drawings for trough, silo sections, and floating dock. Easy to truck to your location country wide. Silos can be purchased directly from us as well

PADDLE WHEEL ASSEMBLY (front right)
PADDLE WHEEL ASSEMBLY (back left)

Guards for paddle wheel and drive system. Its chain driven, its not stopping...

Flow through one of silos. The trough on the first one of these was made out of fiberglass and that had to be changed to a galvanized one because the paddle wheel drew so much water it ripped the fiberglass trough off. Its metal now, no worries.

SPAT ON SHELL EQUIPMENT

2010-01-08T06:23:00.000-08:00

SPAT ON SHELL One of the hottest things going right now is the ability to set oysters on old shell and plant them on your lease. The yield so far has been for every bushel planted 2-3 bushels are harvested, and that is in 12-18 months. Below is a list of some of the things we carry that you might need to do SPAT ON SHELL ...
oyster shells
shell washing machine (QuickTube Sorter)

tanks ( fiberglass 4x8x2 $650 or $600 for 5 or more, and portable 1.5"x1.5" wire mesh tanks)

filter bags
shell bag material $100/1000' roll
a blower
eyed larvae

Here is the link to the all inclusive spat on shell "HOW TO" guide published by the state http://web.vims.edu/adv/frg/FinalSpatonShell%20Project.pdf?svr=www
We can take care of all of your needs in this department. Again, we can help you if you want a bushel of spat on shell already set or if you want to do hundreds of bushels on your own.

SHELL BAG MATERIAL (sometimes called OSN1)
Can be used for spat on shell, shoreline stabilization, or natural spat collection.
Below is a bagging operation, all you need is a 6" piece of PVC and a shovel.
We offer the the bag material for $100/roll or pre-cut and closed on one end for $12.50/25 pack

Below are some pictures of shell bags in action. PenderWatch & Conservancy (all volunteers) created these shell bag reefs with shoreline stabilization and restoration in mind and we'd say they hit a homerun. When you can create a living shoreline for stabilization with oysters at the base and all things that live on or around oysters... you can't do much better.

Here are a few facts:

The reef is on the western side of the Intracoastal Waterway in Pender County, NC. The reef has two sections, each having about 400 shell bags. The reef was built in August 2008. The objectives were to support oysters and other creatures and to stop marsh erosion from boat wake on the ICW.
The water in these pictures is spat rich. Shells put in the water and kept relatively clean during the spawning season will catch the spat. The oysters in this region grow intertidally. The tidal range is about 3 feet on average.
PenderWatch operates 6 shell drop-off points. They expect to collect something over 1,000 BU between Sept 1, 2009 and May 15, 2010.

ARTICLE ON FDA'S ATTEMPT TO BAN RAW OYSTER SALES

2010-01-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

RAW DEAL
January 5, 2010

The original article can be found at SeafoodBusiness.com

Oyster community rallies against FDA efforts to rein in raw oyster consumption
By James Wright
There are many ways to eat an oyster — smoked, fried, roasted, baked, boiled, broiled, stewed or steamed. Aficionados, though, believe less is more and want their half shells raw, with Mother Nature as chef de cuisine. The federal government, on the other hand, believes slurping raw shellfish is risky business and in October proposed that all oysters from the Gulf of Mexico undergo post-harvest processing (PHP) during the warmer months to kill the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, a naturally occurring organism that can cause serious — and potentially fatal — gastrointestinal illnesses. Essentially, the feds want to ban raw Gulf oysters for six to eight months a year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration contends that mandating validated PHP methods would increase food safety, preventing foodborne illnesses and deaths: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 15 deaths occur annually due to contaminated raw shellfish. The oyster community counters that part of its Southern cultural and culinary heritage is under attack and that current state-mandated health warnings — not to mention an established interstate shellfish monitoring system — are sufficient means of protection and that illnesses are unfortunate, but rare. When retailers, wholesalers, restaurateurs and even Congressmen voiced emotional opposition to the FDA’s proposal, the agency in mid-November sidestepped a firestorm of controversy and seemingly backed off its plans to institute mandated PHP for the 2011 oyster harvest.

Yet the possibility of the FDA cracking down hard on half shells is still very real — as are the fears of going out of business for many small, family-owned companies along the Gulf Coast, where nearly two-thirds of U.S. oysters are produced. But there’s more than oyster supplies and prices at stake: The freedom to choose and the role of government in consumers’ everyday lives are at the heart of this debate, which is sure to continue for months as the FDA assesses the feasibility and economics involved with implementing PHP controls, after which it is expected to push its agenda once again.

“It’s an FDA retrenchment, not a retreat,” says Mike Voisin, president of oyster processor Motivatit Seafoods in Houma, La. “They’re not backing off.”

A new approach

The controversy began on Oct. 17, when Michael Taylor, senior advisor to the FDA commissioner, addressed the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) in Manchester, N.H. Taylor stunned attendees by announcing that the agency would soon implement a new raw shellfish policy, voicing his disappointment that a targeted 60 percent reduction in Vibrio vulnificus-related illnesses had not been achieved in California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

“The time has come for a new approach,” Taylor argued, adding that the FDA would require oyster processors to employ one of four approved PHP techniques: high hydrostatic pressure, mild heat pasteurization, individual quick freezing (IQF) and low-dose gamma irradiation. “Seldom is the evidence on a food-safety problem and solution so unambiguous,” Taylor added.

Reaction to the FDA’s new get-tough stance was anything but ambivalent. During a Nov. 13 press conference with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) with Louisiana and Florida oyster suppliers at his side, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said the proposal was excessive, like “trying to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer.” Oyster fishermen, wholesalers, restaurant operators and food lovers alike united in their outrage and set up online petitions such as SaveOurShellfish.org, hoping that a cascade of complaints would force the agency to scrap its idea. Thousands of signatures have been collected.

The interstate shellfish-safety network was also not impressed. ISSC Executive Board Chairman J. Michael Hickey wrote a letter on Nov. 2 to the FDA, saying he was “surprised, confused and very disappointed” by the agency’s about-face without the group’s input. The ISSC works collaboratively with shellfish-producing states as the primary monitor of water quality and molluscan shellfish safety, and has operated with a memorandum of understanding with the FDA since 1982. Saying the FDA was obligated to communicate with the ISSC before plotting a new policy course, Hickey contended that some states would likely choose not to enforce the federal policy, which could only harm efforts to curb shellfish-related illnesses.

The FDA’s proposal, to many in the oyster industry, was nothing short of betrayal at a time when fishermen and their families from Texas to Florida are struggling to survive, many of them lamenting poor landings from oyster habitats destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008.

“I’ve sat next to these people [at FDA] for 25 years, the last 10 when they’ve concurred with the actions of the ISSC,” says Voisin. “Just in September, they said only at-risk groups should be concerned. In October, they go way off the reservation. To wake up one morning and see the 180-degree turn … it’s still shocking to me.”

One billion served

The risks from eating raw oysters have been known for many years, and the FDA’s mandatory PHP proposal wouldn’t be the first drastic measure taken to prevent shellfish-related sicknesses. While even the healthiest person can become ill from eating an oyster contaminated with the Vibrio vulnificus or Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria, certain people with compromised immune systems — individuals with liver disease such as cirrhosis, chronic kidney disease, iron disorders or diabetes — are considered to be at an even greater risk of contracting the severe or fatal gastrointestinal illness known as vibriosis. Opponents of the FDA plan say the agency’s own research indicates that virtually all shellfish-related deaths happen to members of at-risk populations.

“It’d be putting a public health remedy on a private health problem,” says Voisin, who argues that the 15 deaths recorded annually from raw oyster consumption represent a tiny percentage of the roughly 1 billion raw oyster servings consumed in the United States each year. Voisin says FDA should educate consumers of the risks, much like they did when diabetes from excessive sugar consumption became a huge problem in the 1950s and numerous artificial sweetener options became available. “We didn’t ban the traditional product because an at-risk community could die as a result,” adds Voisin. “We said they mismanaged their personal health problem.”

It’s currently up to individual states whether to require restaurants to post warnings about the risks associated with raw oyster consumption on menus or on signs; the raw bar has long operated with an eat-at-your-own-risk policy, with even the most courageous diners aware of the old saw about only eating raw oysters during months with an “r” in it. Oyster suppliers say advancements in shellfish handling, refrigeration and distribution have made that aphorism more of an old wives’ tale rather than sage advice — although the FDA would beg to differ.

“We no longer believe that measures which reduce this hazard, but fall well short of eliminating it, such as improvements in refrigeration, are sufficient to meet the purpose of the regulation, given the severity of the hazard and the availability of post-harvest processing technologies,” Taylor said in his ISSC address.

Despite outcries from the industry, chefs and consumers, a ban on raw oysters during warmer months has some measure of support among special-interest channels. The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest in October listed oysters among the 10 “riskiest” foods that Americans eat and for years has lobbied for preventative measures. Using FDA data, CSPI identified 132 outbreaks from oyster consumption that resulted in 3,409 illnesses since 1990.

“The lives snuffed out prematurely by contaminated oysters should not be coldly dismissed by the shellfish industry or by their allies in Congress as the ‘cost of doing business,’” says CSPI senior staff attorney David Plunkett, decrying a bill titled The Gulf Oyster Protection Act, filed by Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) in response to the FDA proposal. “The industry has known for years how to prevent these deaths with readily available post-harvest processing techniques. Over 250 people have become ill and half of those have died since 2001, and if this industry-supported legislation passes, the toll of preventable death and disease caused by contaminated oysters will continue to rise.”

Kevin Begos, director of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force in Apalachicola, Fla., says the CSPI has “no clue” about how the oyster industry works.

“It’s none of CSPI’s business to tell consumers what type of oysters they should choose. It’s incredibly arrogant of them,” Begos says. “There are people who choose to skydive, believing their parachutes will always open. I would never ride a motorcycle, but I don’t think we should ban them.”

With oysters, the FDA argues, one number speaks volumes: zero. Both FDA and CSPI are trumpeting the success of a 2003 California law that prohibited Gulf oysters from entering the state during summer months unless they had undergone some form of PHP treatment. Between 1991 and 2001, California recorded 40 deaths due to Vibrio vulnificus. Since 2003, no deaths have occurred, according to the FDA, a statistic that emboldened the agency in using California as a policy template.

A mom-and-pop industry

FDA’s primary duty is to promote safety and to eliminate food- and drug-related deaths. Its mandate is not to ensure the survival of shellfish businesses, which argue that mandatory PHP would destroy small companies, harm jobs and tourism and further slow the economy in an already struggling area. Before the FDA vowed to study the Gulf oyster industry’s ability to implement mandatory PHP systems and potential alternatives, something that ISSC demanded, Taylor estimated that 100 percent of production during the warmer months could be handled, far more than the 15 percent that he said currently undergoes treatment.

Oyster suppliers say that is a major miscalculation.

“That’s completely wrong; it’s a myth,” says Begos, adding that the region’s true PHP capacity is closer to 5 or 10 percent of production and that most plants shut down from May to September because they cannot adequately process less-meaty summer oysters. The Gulf Oyster Industry Council estimates PHP oysters account for less than 10 percent of overall production.

An FDA spokesperson told SeaFood Business that statements regarding its initial 100 percent estimate were “taken from industry assurances prior to the FDA’s announcement of its intention to make a policy change” and that the agency would work with ISSC, state regulators, the industry and others to better understand the challenges. Its assessment, which should be complete by the ISSC’s March board meeting, will delve into the costs associated with setting up processing technologies, which sources say are considerable.

After years of innovation and experimentation, Motivatit Seafoods developed a reliable system that kills Vibrio with 45,000 pounds per square inch of pressure and also shucks the oysters, which are then held together with a gold-colored band for distribution. But even a company as large as Motivatit, which is heavily invested in HPP and is considered a pioneer with the technology, processes only half its oysters. “Even we would be affected; it’s pretty significant,” Voisin says.

Some processors quick-freeze small portions of their total production, and only a few employ low-heat pasteurization (or a warm- and cold-water bath), as many buyers and consumers say the oyster meat can turn rubbery. Low-dose gamma irradiation, only recently approved by the FDA as a safe process, has not yet been proven to be economically feasible or market acceptable, says Voisin, whose company has completed trial batches of irradiated oysters with University of Florida researchers.

Sal Sunseri, VP of P&J Oyster Co., which has sold oysters from New Orleans’ historic French Quarter since 1876, says efforts to curb consumption of such a “healthy, culturally significant culinary delight” are “unjustified and unprecedented.” P&J doesn’t sell treated oysters and has never been tied to a vibriosis case, Sunseri says, adding that the vast majority of oysters from Louisiana are from “mom-and-pop” companies that can’t afford to make large investments in processing technology.

“The closest analogy is the egg industry, which has a similar matrix where [the FDA is] trying for a 60 percent reduction in illnesses, but those numbers are in the thousands of cases,” Sunseri says. “The focus should be on educating the at-risk group, not devastating a $350 million industry, one of the few No. 1 industries left in Louisiana.”

Standing in solidarity

A Gulf oyster ban may initially cause the most damage in the Gulf of Mexico, but oyster producers across the country are watching the developments with apprehension because they, too, fear what lengths the FDA will go to make the food supply safer.

“The FDA’s proposed ban has all of us from all three coasts extremely concerned,” says Robin Downey, executive director for the Pacific Shellfish Growers Association in Olympia, Wash. “It is our understanding that — just a couple of days prior to Michael Taylor’s announcement — they had intended to enforce this ban across all the country. We do not know why they backed off the East and West coasts at the last minute but we fully expect that if they are successful in making this go forward that we will be next.”

Even in far-removed regions like the Pacific Northwest and New England, the potential of a Gulf oyster ban resonates loudly — a similar bacteria, Vibrio paraehemolyticus, reaches further north, but is responsible for fewer illnesses. Bob Rheault, Ph.D., former owner of Moonstone Oysters in Wakefield, R.I., and the president of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, admits a restricted Gulf oyster industry could have a negligible or even positive impact on his business. But he says oyster producers are “standing in solidarity” with their Gulf Coast brethren.

“We know if we let the FDA roll over them we are next,” says Rheault. “The FDA stated their official policy was to discourage the consumption of raw shellfish in 2004. They wanted to include Vibrio parahaemolyticus in this edict, but at the final hour thought better of it. The language they use virtually indicates that the breadth of this action will increase over time. When they do so it will be the end of the shellfish aquaculture industry as I know it.”

This month, the oyster industry will again air out its concerns in the Capitol during the National Fisheries Institute’s annual Walk on the Hill lobbying push, which culminates at its Let the World Be Your Oyster reception on Jan. 20. The hope is that one of several pieces of legislation countering mandatory PHP will make headway.

Jeff Tunks, chef-owner of several restaurants in Washington, D.C., including the New Orleans-style Acadiana, will host this year’s reception. An avid oyster lover and purchaser, Tunks says limits to raw oyster supplies from the Gulf would have an “unbelievably adverse affect on us serving oysters of any kind from anywhere.” Tunks pays 49 cents to $1.20 each for live, unprocessed oysters.

“They could be two, three times that,” says Tunks if PHP was mandated. “Who’s going to pay $45 to $50 for a dozen? That’s a lot of money.”

Few would argue that 15 deaths per year from oyster consumption is an acceptable number; even fewer would admit a zero-tolerance policy is possible. But oyster suppliers say they’re doing all they can to ensure consumer safety through education and technology improvements. What’s more, their product is safer than ever and if people want to eat them raw, as they’ve done for hundreds of years, then that’s their prerogative, not the federal government’s.

“For those 15 people and their families, it’s a big issue,” says Tunks. “But there are so many things out there, from raw spinach and scallions with salmonella and non-pasteurized eggs with E. coli — the list is long and if we have this reaction for everything we wouldn’t be able to serve anything.”

E-mail Associate Editor James Wright at jwright@divcom.com

January 2010

HAPPY FREEZING NEWYEAR!!!!!!

2010-01-04T13:52:00.001-08:00

OK, so the north west wind has been on us and it has been cold! We spent a chunk of the morning clearing ice out of the way so we can have access to the farm. Check out the video below. I think we will be throwing an ice eater pump over to give us a little breathing room at the dock.
Plus, its just day one, this weather is going to hold this way for a week or more. We'll post some pictures after Friday.

Someone lost a crab pot.

She fired up pretty quick actually.

FRIDAY MORNING
Had a little snow over night but the ice breaking from earlier in the week has kept our spot open. You can still see the ice in the creek with snow on it.

Birds were enjoying their new piece of temporary shore out by the channel marker of the creek.

An, hour later the weather started again. We went from blue skies and no wind, to snow and 25mph out of the west, snow was falling sideways. Irv was totally coated in snow after we came in from the farm...my bad I left my phone at the dock, so no picture.

MONDAY 1/11/10
Frozen solid at the dock with two inch thick ice and the ice runs out past the farm into the main river. Took us a while to break through.

EQUIPMENT DEALS

2009-12-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

1/13/11 SPECIALS

VOLUME DISCOUNTS ON ORDERS FOR 100+ BUILT 3X4 LOWPRO DOUBLE STACKS

- 1"x1" $115/cage

-.5"x.5" $130/cage

SPECIAL ON ALL BUILT 12.5g BAG CAGES, NO MINIMUM ORDER REQUIRED

-2H1W $30/cage

-2H2W $65/cage

THIS SPECIAL WILL LAST AS LONG AS THE SUPPLY LAST

CALL 804-338-6530 AND ASK FOR JON

OR EMAIL US @ sales@bayoyster.com

CHRISTMAS SEASON IS HERE

2009-12-03T16:54:00.001-08:00

Check this out! This is real live MISTLETOE, it fell out of the tree over the boathouse last night in a storm. Eventhough it was 65 degrees out today it was a reminder that Christmas Season is here.

More mistletoe (the leafy clumps) in the tree it fell out of

Christmas time is a great time for oysters. If you are growing them be sure to eat some, better yet give some as a present, better still have some friends over and serve them up for them. They'll be looking to come to your house every year...as long as you have the oysters.
If you need some we can hook you up.

Another great gift is to set someone up with a little oyster garden of their own. Any of these small oyster gardening set-ups are available for Christmas morning. Above, you see the taylor float and flip float, below are bags, cages, trays, flip bag, aussie bag, and the others from above.

Want their garden to be complete but don't want the smell of oyster seed dieing under the christmas tree, we can give you a gift certificate so when they are ready to put the garden in they can call us up and bring their certificate over for their seed.

And finally you can always give a hat or a t-shirt, check them out on the our web site.

If you really want to wow them just go for the whole enchilada give them some
oysters to eat
a garden set up so they can grow their own
a hat
some t-shirts
a pair of gloves and a shucking knife so they can feel official.
Heck, we'll even throw in some fresh mistletoe!

Have a

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

NOR'EASTER NOVEMBER 09

2009-11-12T08:04:00.001-08:00

The wind and rain got going about 3am Wednesday morning for us. We went out and harvested at 7:30am wed and it was bad but not too bad, went out again at 9:30 and we were taking waves over the bow...NOT COOL. It picked up steady from there, by 11am there was no chance of getting on the farm. The water has continued to rise over the last 24hrs and continues to do so as the wind has picked up and held everything in place. The picture below is from this morning as well as the videos.
I'll take more as we go so you can see how it goes over here.

The boathouse at 7am Thursday morning, high tide was coming at 7:30.

The three pictures above show LOW TIDE on Thursday 2pm.

The next three pictures show high tide at 8pm, remember the boathouse above at lowtide now it is up in the windows. Tomorrow morning should be interesting.

Wind switched to North, so this is high tide Friday morning, I think we are in the clear.

OYSTERGRO CAGES AND INTERMAS BAGS ARE IN STOCK

2009-11-12T07:29:00.001-08:00

Our shipment of bags finally arrived so we have pretty much whatever you are looking for and our prices haven't changed...$5/bag for less than 100, and $4.50/bag for quantities over 100.
The sizes we have are...

4mm sealed

9mm sealed

9mm open

13mm open

23mm open

We have OysterGro cages in stock and ready to go in the water for $130/cage. If you aren't a fan of the colored wire we can build them in straight black as well.

We also have the OysterGro floats for $35/float if you want to build your own or try to float something else.

Great Article About Our Buddies on the Eastern Shore

2009-11-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

By Lorraine Eaton
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 4, 2009
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Parting Creek as "Pardon Creek" and Bayport as "Bayside."

WILLIS WHARF

A few weeks back, I met a new oyster.

This oyster lived in a curiously shaped shell, cupped on the bottom, level on the top, different from the flattish oysters I'm accustomed to slurping. The meat inside looked different, too - rounded and plumpish, not quite compact, but not as spread out as other oysters.

The cupped shape would make this a perfect oyster for shooting, I thought, but only if it delivered a satisfying oyster taste.

So I slurped one down - and it was like no oyster I'd eaten. The meat had a rich flavor, and the pool of salty, milky liquor delivered a sensation of the sea.

--------

The fishmonger said these bivalves hailed from Virginia's Eastern Shore and called them Hog Island oysters.

A few phone calls to state fisheries officials put me in touch with Pete Terry, owner of H.M. Terry Co. Terry is a third-generation waterman who raises infant oysters on a dock in Willis Wharf, about 25 miles up the Eastern Shore, then moves them to reach harvest size in Hog Island Bay.

On an early fall day, clear and warm, Terry stood at the edge of Parting Creek near his family's Willis Wharf clam house. He looked eastward past the landscape he thinks makes his oysters taste so good.

About a mile out, a low silhouette of trees separates the greenish water of Parting Creek from the bright blue sky. Beyond the trees flows the Machipongo River, which is fed by the salty expanse of Hog Island Bay. Two fingers of land - Hog Island and Cobb Island - are the only barriers between the bay and the endless Atlantic.

No one lives on this land. The craggy islands and waters on the Atlantic side of the Eastern Shore, from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to Chincoteague, are protected by a jigsaw puzzle of private organizations and government agencies and cannot be developed.

In addition, a tidal flow of four to five feet provides a "tremendous" flushing action in the deepwater creek, Terry said.

"This is the only place on the East Coast where there is no inland river impacting our water quality," he said. "Everything we have almost is fresh ocean water."

--------

Terry's grandfather harvested wild Eastern Shore oysters, canned them and sold them under the brand name Sewansecott. But a double scourge of diseases crippled the bivalve population, along with the once-storied reputation of Virginia oysters.

Today, the Sewansecott brand is stamped on boxes of oysters that get their start on this dock in Willis Wharf in a series of 44 narrow, rectangular tanks, each 16 feet long, each filled with plastic buckets lined up lip to lip. The operation seems simple, but there's a lot of biology and technology behind it.

Terry's partner in the oyster venture is Tom Gallivan, who studied aquaculture at the University of Maine and worked for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Standing on the dock, Gallivan explained that each bu cket holds tens of thousands of baby oyst ers. In his hand, they looked like tiny chips of pine bark.

A pump forces the Parting Creek water that Terry talked about into the tanks and buckets. The oysters feed on the algae and phytoplankton, and the water, cleaner still because of the oysters' filtration, flows back into the creek.

When the oysters grow large enough, Terry and Gallivan set them into mesh baskets and submerge them onto leased bottomlands on both sides of the Eastern Shore.

Terry's oysters are seasides that grow to harvest size in Hog Island Bay. Gallivan tends his "Nassawadox Salts" on a football-sized plot of leased bottomland on Nassawadox Creek near Bayport on the west ern side. A shucking house built in 1888 still stands at the creek's edge, attesting to the long tradition of oystering in this very spot.

The main difference between Terry's "seaside" Sewansecotts and Gallivan's "bayside" Nassawadox Salts is salinity. The baysides are about 22 parts salt per thousand, while the seasides are about 32.

--------

Later that day aboard the Oyster Queen, Gallivan's battered work boat, the partners pulled a basket out of the creek using an electric winch. The boat pitched to port side, and when the basket settled on the boat deck, it was covered in clots of seaweed and smelled like low tide.

Inside, it teemed with life. Sea squirts shot water, while tiny crabs skittered for cover and a few fish flopped out. But mostly, there were oysters, hundreds of shells sticking up this way and that, slathered in chocolate-colored mud, with the distinctive cup shape.

Gallivan explained that the shape is the result of several passes through a tumbler, where the "bill," or sharp outer edges of the oyster, is chipped off. The oysters go in the tumbler each time they are culled for size and moved into baskets with mesh walls with an increasingly wider weave. Altogether, the oysters take about two years to bring to market size.

Terry hosed down the oysters, and Gallivan picked one up and opened it with a pocketknife. It was almost as plump as a baby's cheek.

When the oysters reach market size, Terry and Gallivan hand-select them for packing. They are tumbled one last time and cleaned before going into 100-count boxes.

In Willis Wharf, you can buy a 100-count box of Sewansecotts or Nassawadox Salts for $35. On this side of the Chesapeake Bay, George's Seafood in Norfolk sells Sewansecotts for $50 a box. It's a premium price, considering that wild-caught Eastern Shore oysters are going for $40 a box. Welton's Seafood Markets in Norfolk's Ghent and at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront sell them for $8.99 a dozen.

Meanwhile, Terry and Gallivan are marketing the oysters in New York and around Raleigh, N.C. But they're catching on locally.

"I have a lot of people ordering them," said Rick Geers, co-owner of George's Seafood. "They're the most consistent oyster I've seen in all my years in the business. There's no thing better."

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 446-2697, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com

Check out the video that went along with the story.

SOME OTHER WAYS TO EAT OYSTERS

2009-10-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER

I've done a bunch of different versions of oysterS rockefeller but this one was simple and tasty.
Warning... I am not an expert cook, I do it all by taste and feel, so the ingredients listed below have no amounts, I just go with what seems right...good luck!

Just add in a bowl the following ingredients to taste...
frozen spinach (thawed and drained)
heavy cream
parmesan cheese
bread crumbs (Italian or plain whatever you have)
J.O. crab seasoning (Old Bay with salt is fine too)

Mixture should be thick enough to spoon onto oysters so it can be spread around, not runny and not to thick, this is what mine looked like.

If you mix it up and let it sit in fridge for 6-12 hours it is supposed to taste even better...I had fresh oysters I wanted to eat right then...impatient.

As for the oysters, just throw a plate full in the microwave until one or two begin to pop. The time depends on the amount of oysters. 1-2 minutes to start, you don't want to over cook them just make it easier to shuck. Get your favorite shucking knife or butter knife and open the oysters up. Remove the top shell, the flatter one, and sweep(cut) the muscle on the bottom shell as well; this makes it easier to eat.

When you are ready to put the topping on the oysters set your oven to 400 degrees F, place the oysters in whatever you have, pie plate, big cake pan and put the topping on with a spoon, cover the oyster all the way and it keeps the juices in nicely. You can add rock salt to the pan so that the oysters will stay upright.

It takes about 4-6 minutes to cook, just get them so they are a little golden brown. If you want more brown and still moist oysters hit them with the broiler for a minute.

I was microwaving a plate full while a set was in the oven so I had a steady stream of oysters rock going. If you are doing this for a party, come up with some system because people will be all over these babies. Many non oyster eaters turn because of these so you can run through a couple hundred fast.

ENJOY!!!

SWEET CHILI CITRUS MIGNONETTE

- Lemon zest, orange zest, ginger, white wine vinegar, chili pepper OR (Tabasco), sugar, corn syrup
- Serve cold with cold half shell oysters
Here it is without the sauce on the oysters, plus it is a dipping sauce, but it looks cool on them.

LEMON GARLIC BUTTER SAUCE

- Butter, lemon juice, garlic salt, green onions, parmesan cheese
- Serve hot with steamed oysters
- Add more parmesean and maybe a little cream, then pour sauce and oysters together over angel hair pasta…NICE!

SEAPA's NEW LINE OF OYSTER BASKETS

2009-10-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

We had a visit from our buddy Shawn from SEAPA this week and he left us with some killer samples of their new line of oyster baskets.

We had messed around with SEAPA stuff in the past and weren't impressed, felt flimsy, had hard to open doors, funny colors, and we basically wrote them off. Well, our tune is way different now, the stuff is solid, the doors open smooth and easy, the stuff is all black (lots of anti-UV), and it comes now in multiple sizes...bottom line...it is now customizable to our situations and we think this gear could do well in our area.

They have two categories "LONGLINE" and "MULTIPURPOSE". The longline baskets are similar to the old style but the multipurpose are just that, they can be used in a variety of ways.

LONGLINE

MULTIPURPOSE
The longest multipurpose basket is about 44", the post in the picture is about 4.5 feet tall.

So, the door and cap on the multipurpose basket is a bit bulky but that is done by design. Notice the square holes and the round holes in the diamond shapes. The diamond with round hole allows for stacking of the baskets so they can be locked together for ladder style hanging or just stacking, or bundling them together.

The square hole design allows for running rails across the basket to rest on racks. (photo courtesy of www.seapa.com.au)

They have a new cap design on the longline baskets which was streamline and again easy to use.

I still think the thing that got our attention the most besides the extra big multipurpose basket was the 3mm seed basket. This thing could make seed work a snap, especially if you use it from a dock. It was a little bit more pricey because of the amount of plastic but you wouldn't need too many.

At the end of this post, I have some videos about the seapa system and one shows the Australian method of doing longlines on treated pine posts...hmmm...sounds like docks and piers...if you happen to think that way, below are the clips you would/could use to attach the baskets.
Otherwise, we think a rack method might work, but like everything else its all situational.

If you want to see the baskets first hand we will have them at the Virginia Aquacultural Conference Nov 13-14 2009 in Williamsburg, VA; at the East Coast Commercial Fishermen's and Aquacultural Trade Show in Ocean City, MD Jan 29-31 2010; or just call and stop by the office to check them out.

Oh yeah, no need to book a flight to Australia, we'll have some in shortly, if you have certain styles you are interested in speak up soon.

VIDEOS

SEAPA basket assembly... this guy is using a "jig"( aluminum angle with two welded posts) to form the tube, he is way fast but the ends still need to be snapped on which isn't too bad.

The music is a little cheesy but the pictures are great. Side note, notice they don't work their oysters on the water, that is all done inland in a "shed" where they keep their hi-tech sorting and washing gear.

This is SEAPA's video which is geared very much to longline systems but its more information.

OYSTER GARDENING SUPPLIES

2009-08-14T04:30:00.001-07:00

If you have been thinking about raising your own oysters, now is the time to get out there and do it. We have everything you need to get started.

Oyster gardening is really easy...
OYSTER SEED + WATER + TIME = Oyster Roast, Oyster Rockefeller, Oyster Stew, Oysters on the half shell.....

There are gardeners who handle their oysters every week, and there are some who handle their oysters once a summer. They both end up with oysters they can eat or plant on their own oyster reef they have created.
Oyster gardening is fun, good for the environment, and something you can do year-round in the Chesapeake Bay. Below are some of the items that we offer to help you raise oysters in just about every water condition found around the Bay.

TAYLOR FLOAT

This is the most common piece of oyster gardening of equipment. They come in a range of sizes: 2x3, 2x6, and 2x8. Any size variation with vinyl coated wire and pvc pipe for floatation with top for access to the oysters is going to be called a Taylor Float.

We offer a built 2x3 Taylor Float for $75 or you can buy the wire from us and build your own.

FLIP FLOATS

Flip floats are oyster floats that can be flipped over from one side to the other to help control fouling on the piece of equipment and make cleaning the oysters a little easier as well.

We offer two varieties: the Float Cage and the Bag Float.

The Float Cage is made of 1x1 wire and PVC floatation and can either hold a growout bag for small oysters or larger oysters directly and it costs $50. The Bag Float takes one of our growout bags and adds UV resistant floats to the side. These floats give it rigidity because they are attached along the whole edge of the bag, so the bag doesn't fold under the weight of the oysters as is often the experience when using soda bottles. Bag Floats built cost $30.

TRAYS AND CAGES

If you prefer going to the bottom to grow your oysters, the two high one wide (2H1W) cage or the 2x3 single tray are ideal. They are both inexpensive, $35 for the 2H1W and $40 for the 2x3 single.

Why go to the bottom? To avoid rough water, out of sight out of mind from all prying eyes or sticky fingers (yes it happens), or you just enjoy going in the water to work your oysters. In 1'-4' of water, you are still in the upper water column where all of the good food is located for fast oyster growth.

GROWOUT BAGS (OYSTER BAGS)

Bags are the cheapest way to go for growing oysters @ $5/bag ($4.50/ bag if you buy 100+). They come in a variety of sizes; 4mm, 9mm, 13mm, 24mm being the most common. The smaller the mesh size, the smaller the seed can go in them. The bags can be used in conjunction with most of the other equipment listed above or you can attach some soda bottles to them to make floats or create a rack on the bottom from rebar of pvc pipe for them to sit on.

OYSTER SEED

Just let us know what you want as far as triploids(non-reproductive) or diploids(reproducers) and then sizes. Triploids tend to grow faster. Usually you get what we have available but if you let us know early enough we take orders.

Seed is sold by the thousand counts and is priced anywhere from $25/1000 to $50/1000 based on size. As of today, our seed is $30/1000.

WE ARE YOUR ONE STOP SHOP IF YOU WANT TO GROW OYSTERS!!!

Virginia Oyster Aquaculture: Sea Grant Article

2009-06-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

SOWING THE SEEDS
Spat-on shell and the future of Virginia oyster aquaculture
By Phil Marsosudiro with additional reporting by Margaret Pizer

Virginia Marine Resource BulletinSpring 2009, Vol. 41, No. 1

It looks like a dirty baseball sitting under wet paper towels in a cooler, but it’s actually a bundle of live oyster larvae, some 20 million of them, purchased for $4,000. Michael Congrove—Remote Setting Extension Agent for the Virginia Seafood Council—lifts them out of the cooler and puts them gently into a bucket of clean seawater. He gives them a stir and waits, then pulls a few out and places them under his microscope to check their bellies (dark means they’re well-fed) and to make sure their gills are clear. If the larvae are healthy and they’re treated well for the next eighteen months, there’s a decent chance that they’ll turn into 600 bushels of oysters. Sell them at $25 a bushel, and that’s a $15,000 home run off a $4,000 baseball.
This is the dream of spat-on-shell oyster cultivation.
As aquaculture techniques go, spat-on-shell is not very complicated. You take a 10-foot diameter tank of water, drop in bags of old oyster shells, add a large batch of larvae, and wait a few days. If you’ve done it right, ten or so larvae will have settled and metamorphosed into tiny juvenile oysters (called spat) on each of the old shells, just like they would do in the wild. Then you take the bags of spat-on-shell and place them on leased bottoms in the open water. If all goes well, in about a year-and-a-half you’ll be harvesting full-grown oysters, ready for shucking.
“It’s almost like following a recipe,” says James Wesson, PhD, of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). But he adds that if you want to make a living from it, you need three things: First, you need the proper ingredients; second, you need to work with care and skill; and third, you need an environment that will support your efforts.
The Proper Ingredients Virginia’s first experiments with spat-on-shell date back to the 1980s. But at the time, the pieces weren’t all there to make it work. “Disease was widespread, and we didn’t yet have a broodstock of disease-resistant oysters” that could grow to market size in sufficient quantities to justify the spat-on-shell effort, says Wesson. So Virginia had to put the idea aside while they worked on improving the broodstock.
“First, we’ve developed a disease-resistant oyster,” says Wesson. It isn’t immune to disease, but it can stay healthy long enough to get to market size, and that’s all that is needed. “Second, we’ve learned how to breed triploid oysters—sterile oysters that put all their energy into a fast growout, and none into breeding.” These improvements have put spat-on-shell back on the table and locked in the first key ingredients for a Virginia oyster revival.
“Right now, most of the shucked oysters that we ‘produce’ in Virginia are shipped in from the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere,” says Wesson. They’re a more expensive and less reliable source. For flavor, for predictability, and for profit, “we want to produce oysters that are grown in Virginia, not just shucked in Virginia.”

Mastering the Technique

After Virginia developed better broodstock and a suitable technique for cultivation, the next step was to put spat-on-shell into practice. In 2005, a dozen oyster producers began working with VIMS, VMRC, and other partners to see how spat-on-shell would work for them. After three years of progress, they decided to cross the threshold from pilot projects into independent commercial production.
To help the producers make this transition happen, Virginia’s Fishery Resource Grant Program provided funds for Congrove to work with them intensively for one year. In 2008, Congrove helped each company run several sets of spat-on-shell production—from tank preparation to larvae-setting to planting the spat-on-shell in Virginia waters. With each set, commercial staff acquired more skill and sophistication with the technique, until the end of the year when all of the participating firms were ready to conduct spat-on-shell cultivation without help from Commonwealth staff.
“The collaboration really got us off the ground,” says A.J. Erskine of the Bevans Oyster Company. While he and his peers might have started spat-on-shell by themselves, Erskine says, “Our progress would have been much slower and would have cost much more. Because Virginia backed us up with technical and financial support, the opportunity was a lot more tangible.”
Rufus Ruark Jr. of the Shores and Ruark Seafood Company echoes Erskine’s comment: “We already knew about the technique because it had a long history elsewhere.” But for his own company? “Seeing is believing, and seeing how it did work (not just how it might work) was what everybody learned. I’ve learned a lot about the larval end of it. At first it felt like, ‘just put the larvae in with the shell? That’s not gonna do anything,’ But then we pull our shells up several days later, and lo and behold there’s fifteen oyster on it.”
“Once I see that I can make money off it, I’ll go off on it,” says Ruark. “But the Commonwealth setting us up with the program is a big help—a real deciding factor. And the continuing help that they give us is a big thing.”

Supportive Environment

The final piece of the puzzle for Virginia oyster growers has been a supportive economic and regulatory environment that has helped encourage both small- and large-scale aquaculture efforts.
Although spat-on-shell aquaculture for shucked oysters is new, Virginia has more than a decade of experience in aquaculture for individual oysters that are sold on the half-shell market. Aquaculture for individual oysters is a much more labor-intensive and expensive process than spat-on-shell aquaculture. But the resulting product (which is sold in the shell, unshucked) can be sold for a much higher price.
Annual sales of Virginia-grown aquacultured oysters (half-shell and shucked) increased six-fold over the three-year period from 2005 to 2007. Several large commercial growers got in on the action—either adding aquaculture to shucking houses or starting new commercial aquaculture enterprises. Oyster hatcheries have also opened in several parts of the state, and the expanding Eastern Shore oyster aquaculture landscape now includes a major hatchery.
Oyster growers like Doug McMinn, who founded his Chesapeake Bay Oyster Company in 2003, say the motor behind the success of Virginia oyster aquaculture has been steady growth in the market for Chesapeake Bay oysters, the availability of local shucking houses, and the support of state institutions like VIMS that have helped develop the science to set oyster growers on the right track.
“I think part of why the [aquacultured] clams have done so well and why oyster farming now is doing well is because the state was in at the beginning to help come up with some of the technology but then the guys had to start putting down their own money and putting themselves on the line,” says McMinn. “They’re not going to walk away from the buck that they put down without a fight.”
McMinn thinks Virginia has reached the right public-private balance to foster growth in the oyster industry. “This state has a lot of private individuals who run hatcheries and do a really good job, and they’re willing to increase volume as the demand dictates.”
In addition to hatcheries, shucking houses are an important component of the supportive environment in Virginia. In other East Coast states, many shucking houses went out of business as natural oyster harvests declined in the second half of the twentieth century, but in Virginia, the shucking houses began trucking in oysters from the Gulf Coast and were able to stay afloat.
Now, as aquacultured oysters are on the rise, these shucking houses are a natural place for those oysters to go. “Because we have shucking houses around here, we automatically have another market” for individually grown oysters that might not be suitable for the half-shell market because of their size or quality, says McMinn. Those shucking houses are also a natural market for spat-on-shell oysters from Virginia, and many of them are getting into the spat-on-shell oyster cultivation business themselves.

The Forecast

For all the progress they’ve made thus far, Virginia scientists and oyster producers are far from knowing that spat-on-shell will be a guaranteed success. Disease, pollution, weather-driven changes in salinity, and predation from the cownose ray remain as known risks or wildcards that could derail the potential of spat-on-shell production in Virginia.
Despite the uncertainties, commercial producers remain hopeful. “
We’ve already been working with some of the guys on better systems” for spat-on-shell, says McMinn. “The more we do to farm raise, whether it’s spat-on-shell, whether its cage, whatever you’re doing, it takes pressure off the wild stocks. I think spat-on-shell is going to be a great thing for restoration.”
At Kellum Seafood, Vice President Tommy Kellum says, “at this point, spat-on-shell is producing maybe 10,000 bushels a year for us. It’s certainly in a juvenile stage for us. But given the size of our leased acreage, we could get to a point where fifty to sixty percent of our oyster supply would come from spat-on-shell in five to eight years. With spat-on-shell, I can actually see us generating enough oysters to keep the plant running year round, with 100 people working.”
Rufus Ruark Jr. sums it up. “I think this is something everyone’s gonna be happy with.”

Crediting Oysters for Helping Clean the Bay

The Commonwealth has a strong record of supporting the science and training needed to help oyster growers succeed. In the coming years, Virginia may also have the opportunity to provide incentives for both amateur oyster gardeners and commercial aquaculture operations based on the benefits oysters provide to the environment by filtering and cleaning Chesapeake Bay waters.
One simple incentive would be a tax credit for Virginia residents who grow oysters off of backyard docks or floats. In the 2009 session of the Virginia General Assembly, a bill to establish such a credit was put forward by Senator Ralph S. Northam who represents District Six, including Accomack, Northampton, and Mathews Counties and parts of Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
“If people get involved by putting an oyster float out, the next thing you know they might realize maybe they don’t need as much fertilizer on their lawn,” says Northam, arguing that an awareness of the nitrogen, phosphorous, and other pollutants that oysters help remove from the water would have cascading effects on the behavior of coastal residents. Although the bill had to be withdrawn due to this year’s budget crisis, Northam plans to reintroduce it in the future.
A second incentive would encourage large-scale oyster aquaculture by providing “nutrient credits” to oyster growers based directly on the pounds of nutrients removed from Bay waters.
One way to create monetary value for a credit is through nutrient trading. Nutrient trading is already on the books in Virginia. Passed by the state legislature in 2005 and slated to become mandatory in 2011, the system limits nitrogen and phosphorous output from point sources like wastewater treatment plants. Plants that exceed the limit can buy credits from others whose output is below it.
Point sources can also balance their emissions by buying nutrient offsets from point or non-point sources. The Department of Environmental Quality has approved several types of agricultural offsets. For example, farmers can generate offsets by reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizer or by leaving some of their land untilled.
A team of researchers, including Kurt Stephenson of Virginia Tech, Alex Miller at the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission and Bonnie Brown and Colleen Higgins at VCU are researching ways that oyster growers could generate nutrient credits. Oysters remove nutrients from the water by filter feeding. When the oysters are harvested, the nutrients they’ve eaten and incorporated into their tissues are permanently removed from the water. Oysters also accelerate denitrification, which transforms nitrogen into a gas that is biologically unavailable.
Stephenson and Miller say that one major obstacle to incorporating oyster aquaculture into the nutrient trading system is the complicated science required to quantify how much nitrogen oysters remove—which can depend on the size of the oysters, where they are grown, and a variety of other factors. If these issues can be overcome, nutrient credits promise yet another source of support for commercial oyster aquaculture operations. Oyster growers like Jack White, owner of New Point Oyster Company, hope that Virginia will be able to include oysters in its nutrient trading system. “The time is ripe to recognize the role shellfish can play in cleaning up the Bay” and to make that recognition pay for oyster growers, says White.

A Practical Manual

A group of Virginia scientists and seafood companies collaborated to produce “A Practical Manual for Remote Setting in Virginia,” a booklet that outlines a step-by-step process for obtaining oyster larvae, getting them to set on shells, and growing them out to harvestable sizes.
The manual was written by Michael S. Congrove of W.E. Kellum Inc. and the Virginia Seafood Council, Dr. James A. Wesson of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, and Dr. Standish K. Allen Jr. of VIMS with collaboration from ten Virginia seafood companies and funding from the Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program, which is administered by the VIMS Advisory Services department.
The ten seafood companies that participated in the project are Bevans Oyster Company, Cowart Seafood Corporation, J&W Seafood, Kellum Seafood, Mobjack Bay Seafood, Purcell’s Seafood, Sea Farms, Shore Seafood, Shores and Ruark Seafood, and Terry Brothers.
The manual is available for free online or for $10 in print. Go to http://web.vims.edu/adv/frg/ or email vsgpubs@vims.edu.

To see this article in its entirety click on this link Sowing The Seeds

Maryland Opens Door for Shellfish Farming

2009-05-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

We have been talking to folks from Maryland for years about doing what we do and only a handful have been able to get into the business because of some carzy laws in their state for leasing. Well, that is all going to change with the passing of the shellfish aquacultural bill as you will read below. So, if you want to grow clams or oysters in Maryland the door has just been opened, get going you still have time to get set up for this season.

MARYLAND GOVERNOR SIGNS NEW SHELLFISH AQUACULTURE BILL

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has signed into law a new ShellfishAquaculture Leasing bill (Senate Bill 271/House Bill 312) that revises leasing laws to make it easier for shellfish growers in the state. The bill stems from a visit the Governor made to shellfish aquaculture businesses last August and is another of Governor O'Malley's "Smart, Green and Growing" initiatives from the 2009 Legislative Assembly. At a press conference held after his visit to Great Eastern Chincoteague Oysters and Gordon's Shellfish, LLC, O'Malley said that he wanted a new aquaculture bill on his desk within 60 days. The State's Aquaculture Coordinating Council was asked to provide direction for the plan. Recommendations provided by that Council led to an administration bill that passed unanimously in both legislative houses this session. It is the first time in 103 years that the leasing laws of Maryland have been changed to encourage industry growth. "Expanding opportunities for shellfish aquaculture in Maryland waters is vital to the health and economic prosperity of the Chesapeake and coastal bays," said Governor O'Malley. "These changes will not only help restore important aquatic populations - like our native oyster - but also create jobs for Maryland's working families. "The new law gets rid of the classification of Natural Oyster Bars that have been off limits to leasing for the last century. They are replaced withPublic Shellfish areas that have been actively used during the past three years. Proponents of the new bill pointed out that most of the historical bars had long died out but that shell to create new oyster growing areas was still there and could be renovated by private industry. The bill should lead to thousands of new acres being available for lease. The bill gets rid of prohibitions on leasing in many county waters, mostly on the Eastern Shore, where oyster growing could be profitable. It continues leasing to residents but for the first time makes them available to nonresidents and corporations. It removes size restrictions on the amount of land that can be leased, and will replace former limits by mandating use and creating production standards that will be regularly reviewed to keep a lease active. Aquaculture Enterprise Zones, new areas that provide locations for surface and water column production, are authorized. These will have the State become the permit holder from federal agencies, subleasing plots to private growers. This will cut down the time consuming process for individuals to obtain permits, help spur private investment in leasing operations, and encourage commercial watermen to transition into aquaculture. Twenty-fivepercent of AEZs will be held for current watermen until 2011, in order to give them a chance to transition to aquaculture. The new bill gets rid of most old laws on shellfish aquaculture enacted during the past century. The Aquaculture Coordinating Council recommended that regulatory authority be granted to agencies for flexibility rather than relying on the passage of laws that had bogged down the previous leasing program. These changes will give commercial waterman, farmers and others the opportunity to farm shellfish, helping to revitalize Maryland's oyster industry and increase oyster and clam populations in the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays. This law will help bring Maryland in line with states such as Virginia where the hard clam aquaculture industry is a $50 million business supporting several hundred jobs in mostly rural areas. "Today's bill signing signals the great potential for expanding aquafarming in a way that is smart, green and growing for our environment, our economy,and employment," said Agriculture Secretary Earl F. "Buddy" Hance. "Aquaculture businesses and watermen look forward to the creation of the enterprise zones and opening of bottom leases so that they can get to work farming shellfish in the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays and bringing Maryland's outstanding seafood products to market. " The Maryland Department of Agriculture has long supported aquaculture. Their Aquaculture Coordinator chairs the Aquaculture Review Board, formed by the legislative action in 2005 with members of agencies responsible for permitting meeting regularly for ensuring action on applications. The MDA also is home to the Aquaculture Coordinating Council which has created Best Management Practices, helped develop the Aquaculture Enterprise Zone concept, and aided in creating the recommendations that led to this new law.

Don Webster
Regional Extension Specialist
University of Maryland Cooperative Extension
Wye Research & Education Center
Queenstown MD
Work: 410-827-5377x127
Email: dwebster@umd.edu

WAY TO GO MARYLAND!!!
I can think of a few more states that may want to follow MD's example...DE,NC..., but we kinda like the fact other states haven't figured it out yet...more oysters and clams for the VA growers to sell.

Quick Lesson in Genetics

2009-04-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of talk about the Triploid oyster in the Chesapeake Bay region especially in oyster aquaculture. I have heard some things over the last few years that I just want to try and clear up as well as just throw in my two cents...remember you get what you pay for.

WHAT IS A TRIPLOID?

First, what it is not...
A TRIPLOID IS NOT AN ASIAN OYSTER !!!!
This misunderstanding has troubled me the most and I've heard it frequently. The Asian oyster (Crassostrea ariakensis) was required to be studied in a triploidy form so it wouldn't reproduce so we wouldn't end up with a bay full of asian oysters by accident. But somehow the word triploid began to be synonymous with asian oyster...this is not the case... any oyster can be produced in a triploid form. Pretty much every triploid oyster being raised in Virginia today is a triploid C. virginica not C. ariakensis.

Now what it is...
Triploidy, is a form of polyploidy which means having more than two sets of chromosomes. Your average run of the mill organism has two chromosomes or is known as a diploid. You and I are diploid creatures, we have one chromosome from mom and one from dad. In the case of the triploid oyster there are three...tri = three. Polyploidy is a common occurence in nature especially in plants. However, our triploid oysters don't come to us naturally triploid that is something that is worked out in a lab...we talk about this later.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A TRIPLOID?
4n + 2n = 3n

Definitions...
4n - TETRAPLOID (4 chromosomes or way to many chromosomes for its own good)
2n - DIPLOID (2 chromosomes...standard issue)
3n - TRIPLOID (one extra set of chromosomes, so three total, so it is infertile or will not/should not reproduce)

WHY WOULD YOU WANT A TRIPLOID?
Two reasons...
1. Triploids "tend" to grow faster.
2. Triploids "tend" to have good meat content throughout the summer, because they don't become "poor" and that is because they don't spawn. So a triploid should have a meat yield in August similar to Febuary, so more market potential.

WHERE DO TRIPLOID OYSTERS COME FROM?
This is a little complicated.
ABC (Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center) at VIMS (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) handles the breeding and production of disease resistant lines of oysters; DEBBIEs, CROS breeds, etc... they provide the "brood stock" to hatcheries who spawn them to produce your seed. You pay a royalty fee to VIMS for the use of those lines. However, the head of ABC is also one of the owners of a private company (4c's Breeding Technology Inc.) that has a patent on the triploidy process. You pay a seperate royalty fee for triploidy to the private company. You see this in the price of seed from a hatchery $6/1000 no royalties, $7/1000 disease resitance royalties, $8/1000 disease resitance and triploidy royalties. What occurs is that ABC produces the disease resistant brood stock and then someone at VIMS/4c's produces the tertaploid oysters through the patented process, so VIMS pays a fee to do that I think. Regardless, they produce tertaploids and supply hatcheries with living tetraploid oysters which can be conditioned and used for the production of triploid seed or they produce tetraploid oysters and get the sperm from those oysters and provide that to the hatcheries for the production of triploid oysters. Clear...muddy...check out 4c's website it spells out the whole process... http://www.4cshellfish.com/

HOW DO I GET TRIPLOID OYSTER SEED?
Ask for it when you place your order with any hatchery, then hurry up and wait...

and wait...

have your delivery date pass and wait...

now begin to sweat and wait...

sweat, wait, and hope some triploid seed comes in...

then do all of that again and start counting the number of weeks of growing time you are losing because you are waiting for that triploid oyster...

now you find out the reason you are waiting is because (anyone of the following have occured) the original tetraploid brood stock was mostly female, the brood stock wouldn't condition, the sperm was no good, the stuff mated but it looks "funky", all of which point back to the production of the tetraploids...

If your lucky some seed comes in, not all that you ordered. Then you hope that the seed that did come in is actually in top notch shape because the hatcheries were having a difficult time producing the triploids and that has to make you question the quality of the genetics...

So we end up short on triploid seed as an industry again and this leads to the VERY FALSE idea that our private hatcheries in Virginia can't handle the demand and that the state should step in and fill the void with its own hatchery, VERY BAD IDEA ...I wonder why they would be pushing for that so hard?

In the mean time you may want to consider looking for some diploid oyster seed. So you won't have the meat yields you might want for summer time (July, August) atleast you'll have some gorgeous oysters to sell a year from now when the market is hot. There is nothing worse than having a good market and running out of oysters because you just didn't have enough to start with, or they are just not big enough because you got them late.

A few of us in the industry have been toying with locally resistant strains of oysters over last several years. VIMS calls this "backyard breeding", we call it not paying a 15% royalty fee on 4 million oysters, its save about $8K. But more than that it has given us some solid gold oysters to work with outside of the triploid.

Final note...
We are not against the triploid C. virginica in any way, it is an awesome oyster when all things come together, what we struggle with are the constant issues with the production of the triploid seed. It is inconsistent, to say the least, and a risky proposal to assume you will be able to get nothing but triploids on your farm. It is wise to always have some other strains of oysters on hand both diploid and triploid just because you never know what mother nature will throw your way.
These struggles in the industry are just growing pains, it is part of the process of becoming bigger than we are, which is a good thing.

QUICKTUBE SORTER

2009-03-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

We came up with the QuickTube Sorter in response to the limitations of other tumbling sorters on the market. We basically took all of the things we didn't like and made them better or wished were doable and made them a reality.

The QuickTube Sorter currently costs $10,000
Great price for what you get!
That includes two sorting tubes, one for seed and one for market/sub-market. The tubes have hole sizes 5/8", 7/8" for the seed tube, 1.25", 1.75" for the market/sub-market tube. We have found these to be the best overall combination for an oyster farm. You can always get more tubes with other size holes, currently the most popular is the small seed tube with 1/4" and 1/2" holes. Each custom or additional tube cost $2400.
Tubes can also be made of stainless steel for increased longevity but they are a lot heavier and they cost $3100 each.

WHAT MAKES THE QUICKTUBE SORTER UNIQUE ?

1.First...and by far foremost, is the ability to switch sorting sizes in a couple of minutes. The mesh style sorters take an hour plus WITH TWO GUYS and are a real pain. Now, with the QuickTube Sorter two guys can change a tube in a matter of minutes.
The video below shows us changing out a tube. The newest version allows for the motor mount to be left up in place so there is no need to flip it all the way back, see the picture below the video.

The QuickTube Sorter with it's hood up.

Again, note the motor mount is held in place while the other end is flipped all the way back and out of the way. The spray bar is quickly disconnected as well so it can be removed and placed back inside the next tube.

2.The sorter is hinged on both sides so it can be used from the left or right side depending on your set-up, you just need to revesre the guard and the rotation of the motor which are both easy to do.

3.Round holes instead of square mesh. This gives a better grade than the square hole because square holes have a long side and a short side, round holes measure the same all the way around. The holes are offset in order to maximize the sorting surface area giving a better grade, and round holes can also sort clams.

4.The machine comes equiped with a wash down connection with a spray bar with nozzles. You can hook up a hose from a booster pump(not included $750) or you can run a gas powered pump on it and clean your oysters effectively while they are being graded. In this picture the bar is disconnected from the machine, it has a quick connect fitting for tube changes.

5.The legs are adjustable and the feet pivot so you can change the angle and height of the unit to allow the oysters to roll quicker or slower down the tube and so it can be adjusted to work with other equipment such as a hopper conveyor and/or grading table.

6.The whole unit is made of heavy guage aluminum so that it is light weight yet strong (a couple of guys can pick one up) and it can endure the harsh marine environment for years of service.

And it fits nicely in a pick-up truck or on a trailer.

7.The unit can be powered by electric or hydraulic. The electric motor (120V) is not variable but we could put a variable speed motor on if desired, its just going to be more expensive. We no longer use the variable speed motors on the tumblers because about 5 years ago we found the "sweet" spot on our original tumbler, which had a variable speed motor, and literally we haven't touched it since. So as we set out to make a better product that was reasonably priced we got rid of the variable speed and spec'd out a gear motor that had the same torque and rotational speed as our "sweet" spot. We also found that the variable speed or varying flow is most important on a hopper conveyor that would be feeding the QuickTube Sorter.

8.The unit comes with a tray for the front of the machine that can hold a bushel of oysters for manual loading. The tray is bolted on so it can be removed if you decide to upgrade to a hopper feed, which we totally recommend.

9. The shoots the oysters fall into are completely closed so no oysters are lost on the drop and they are attached on an angle to flow better when the machine is in its working position or sloped. Fish totes slide in sideways to catch the oysters that fall through.

10. There is only one seam in each sorting section compared to the three in mesh sorters and the holes cover almost 4' of the tube per grade, both of which mean more sorting area so a better sort.

Its hard to see, but look close and you can see the seam on the back of the tube and how little it interferes with sorting.

Here are two videos of the QuickTube Sorter in action, one with seed and one with markets in conjunction with hopper conveyors and sorting conveyors.

Spat On Shell Harvest 3/18/09

2009-03-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

18 months ago these were just specks on old oysters shells, today they are fat 4" to 5" oysters ready to be shucked and sold.

Only took these guys 3 hours to knock out these 60 bushels. They are experienced oyster tongers.

Nice to see a boat loaded with oysters.

OYSTER SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!

2009-03-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to go out and harvest...
Buoy was reading 42knots steady during the night... we didn't go out in that. I think when we went out it was just in the twenties, not great but we managed, couldn't do it without the longline.
I don't mind working in the rain and snow, just HATE the wind.
It was FREEZING!!!

This marker should be a whole lot easier to see on the way to the farm.

This is how we do it in Wake!
No big plow with a salt spreader,
just our neighbor Stosh and his tractor. He scraped the snow off the county road; I think he was bored and this gave him something fun to do.
Yes, that is our post office and that is down town Wake.

That sea grass is frozen solid, the cages froze as soon as they hit the boat. Luckily, we can get the oysters in fast enough to not freeze them.
You know its a cold day when you are excited to get into the cooler because its WARM in there. But 42 degrees with now wind is balmy compared to the wind chill on the water.

The Dock and the Ellie K

If you see this in your yard DO NOT bend wire.
You can bend wire almost all of the time, but once you drop below freezing and colder you can snap the vinyl coating on the wire as you bend it.
If its real cold you can even snap the welds.
Just bend inside or take the day off.

If you thought that was cold how about these from two weeks ago.

Eastern Shore Crew and their "oysters on ice" farm.
The gear even works frozen.
However, everyone that works in shallow water (2'-5') makes certain they know how low the tides get in the winter...don't want any exposed gear and frozen product.

This is how we roll in the winter because it is normally windy and cold but oysters still need to be harvested...

Essential Clothing List...
Sun glasses (polarized)
Fleece hat
Neck fleece...LIFE SAVER!!!!
Rain coat...if its raining or blowing
Bib rain pants (oil skins) (Grudens)...always a must year round
Powder shell...this serves two purposes, keeps the wind off of you and keeps the mud off of you
Gruden sleeves...wear over the powder jacket, they keep your arms from getting ripped up on wire and shells
2 t-shirts
Turtle neck
Wool sweater
Fleece vest
Jeans
Thermals
Wool socks
Neoprene lined boats (Muck Boots)
Water proof gloves with removable liner

I think that about covers it.

Staying warm while your working and it is nasty out makes this work fun...
being cold is miserable!!!

Spawning Oyster Garden

2009-02-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

When I first got started into this stuff back in 2001, I was like a lot of other folks, I had a bag and a dock. Well, I new we needed to expand so I got up with my buddy "Winky" (more to come on him) and he let me use his tidal pond. We were big time then, 8 floating bags!!! It was pretty cool because they were clipped on to a longline that had a pulley; so we could stand on shore and just bring the bags to us.
Anyhow, one afternoon in late June or early July I went to check on the oysters and all of this white stuff was billowing out...I had NO IDEA what was going on. But I did have my camera and here you have it...growing stuff at a dock can go on to reproduce!!!

Oyster gardeners keep doing your thing, every bit helps!!!

Grow-out bags, bag floats and oyster seed available from http://www.bayoyster.com/ contact Steph at sales@bayoyster.com

Cranes, Hoist, Davits...

2009-02-23T08:08:00.000-08:00

Below are pictures of some other cranes and rigs guys use to pick up their gear around here...

Sweet use of an old mast and boom on a barge set-up.

Mast and boom on a classic Chesapeake Bay deadrise, already using it for dredging so it picks up cages just fine too and it can handle the load.
Northern tool pick-up truck hoist...yes it actually works>>>>>>>>>>

This is our hoist we bought long before we started building our own stuff, its on our carolina 23.8.
This set-up came from Thern . Sweet crane and has never failed us but a little high on price, also the boom can be just a hair short on the new DLX skiffs, especially the extra wides.

Mast and boom set-up on eastern shore. Picks a cage up in a hurry

Chesapeake Bay Foundation's
oyster farming/restoration boat has a sweet hydraulic crane on board. This puppy is powered by its own Perkins diesel...that diesel powers a bunch of other things as well. Sweet rig!

FYI...notice how we gave credit to CBF and even have a link to their website, if you want to use our pictures or videos that is awesome, just give us a shout out so people know where you got it from. www.bayoyster.com in the bottom corner of the picture/video is all you need on a web site/blog/print/or presentation and then we are totally happy to see you use our stuff.

Tip of the Iceberg...shellfish culture in VA

2009-02-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

Just in case you thought we were the only guys in VIRGINIA doing this stuff, below is a list of some of the oyster farms in the region. This list is in NO WAY complete, and it doesn't even touch on what is done with clams!!! We are only showcasing these guys because they are already out on the internet, click on their logo and check them out.
There are a BUNCH of guys who are doing this and would rather remain...a little less known, and we are totally down with that.
One note...I like what I do and part of that is because the folks we get to work with in this industry...they are just good people.

Virginia Oyster Farms

Virginia Oyster Hatcheries

JC Walker Brothers Inc.
Box H Willis Wharf, VA 23486
Ann 757-692-0294 aearseniu@yahoo.com
Tom Walker 757-442-6000

PO Box 769
North, VA 23128
Contact: Ken
804-725-0159

NC Aquaculture Show

2009-01-29T07:27:00.001-08:00

We'll be down at the North Carolina Aquaculture Development Conference in Atlantic Beach this weekend. You can find more information at http://www.ncaquaculture.org/.