April 15, 2026 — Around New England, oysters are dying at alarming rates during the winter months.
Now, scientists in New Hampshire are trying to figure out why, as the future of the region’s youngest and smallest oyster industry hangs in the balance.
The oyster industry has grown tremendously in New Hampshire in recent years.
But as oyster farmer Joe Rankin discovered, there can be a devastating downside: mass die-offs during the cold winter that can derail the business.
That’s what he experienced in 2022, when he returned to his New Hampshire farm on the western side of Little Bay in the spring and found that about 80 percent of his oysters had died over the winter.
If he hadn’t known other oyster farmers who had overcome similar losses, he said, “I would have probably been discouraged enough to leave.”
He wants to see the industry keep growing, but even in better years, he’s seen anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of his oysters die during the winter.