Saving Seafood

LOUISIANA: New Orleans restaurants’ oyster shells helped save the coast; can they again?

January 19, 2021 — In an eroding bay south of New Orleans, where the sea is rapidly claiming land, your dinner leftovers were being stacked into an 800-ton wall nearly a mile long.

The shells of oysters, shucked or slurped at the city’s restaurants, are the raw material for this bulwark against waves, storms and rising seas.

“It’s crazy to think each one of these was on someone’s plate,” coastal restoration specialist Deb Visco Abibou said, as shells packed tight in metal cages were hoisted from a barge and plopped into the shallow waters of Barataria Bay. “It always surprises me that they don’t smell more like garlic.”

The shells are cast-asides from the heady days before the coronavirus pandemic, back when New Orleans’ vaunted seafood restaurants were crammed with customers. The eateries were producing about 75 tons of shells per month for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which runs New Orleans’ 7-year-old oyster recycling program.

The vast majority of oyster shells taken from the Gulf of Mexico never make it back. Instead, they end up in landfills or get crushed into chicken feed or road bed material.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

NORTH CAROLINA: 50 Million Oyster Initiative now supports 140 million oysters

January 14, 2021 — Good news for oysters! The North Carolina Coastal Federation and partners set out to restore 50 million oysters to coastal waters through their 50 Million Oyster Initiative. In the end, they nearly tripled the that goal with 140 million oysters living on 43 acres of newly created oyster reefs.

The initiative launched in Pamlico Sound, where the federation, state Division of Marine Fisheries and partners created 40 acres of new oyster sanctuary between 2017-2019. Monitoring of the Swan Island Oyster Sanctuary by the Division of Marine Fisheries in 2020 indicated oyster densities as high as 2,000 oysters per meter squared on this reef. This translates to roughly 136 million oysters on the oyster sanctuary alone, when the reef architecture is taken into consideration.

“We are very pleased with this sanctuary’s ability to grow oysters year after year, and will continue to monitor its performance as a reference for future sanctuary design and construction,” said Cameron Luck, oyster sanctuary biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

In addition to the highly successful Swan Island Oyster Sanctuary, an additional 3.5 acres of oyster reef were created as living shorelines and patch reefs throughout the state along private property and in harvestable waters. Monitoring results from these patch reefs indicate they also support high densities of oysters, with each acre supporting more than 1 million oysters.

Read the full story at The Coastland Times

Scotland’s Seafood Industry Is Already Reeling from Brexit

January 12, 2021 — By ending a 27-year-old union, Brexit was sure to come with some growing pains. But with less than two weeks under their belt, some in the Scottish fishing industry are wondering if what they’re feeling is more akin to death throes.

As Reuters reported on Friday, the additional red tape caused by the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU has led to major issues for the Scottish fishing industry which has relied on seamless next-day transport of fresh seafood to customers on the European mainland. Since Brexit became official on January 1, shipping Scottish langoustines, scallops, oysters, lobsters, and mussels to places like France, Belgium, and Spain has suddenly been slower and more expensive—and some businesses wonder if their models will remain sustainable.

Due to new paperwork like health certificates and customs declarations, one-day deliveries were reportedly taking three days or more. And DFDS Scotland—a major logistics company for the industry—admitted to a mix of IT and paperwork issues. “These businesses are not transporting toilet rolls or widgets. They are exporting the highest quality, perishable seafood which has a finite window to get to markets in peak condition,” Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland, told the BBC over the weekend. “If the window closes, these consignments go to landfill.”

And speaking of paperwork, one Scottish exporter told Reuters that paperwork alone could cost him over $800 a day. “I’m questioning whether to carry on,” he explained. “If our fish is too expensive our customers will buy elsewhere.”

Read the full story at Food & Wine

Can drones help to reduce oyster mortality?

January 7, 2021 — The researchers plan to use small fleets of unmanned vehicles to monitor water quality in areas that are difficult and dangerous for people to access.

It’s a step, they say, that could help the state’s shellfish farming sector grow into a $100-million-a-year industry by 2030.

The researchers say the project will provide valuable data to inform management decisions that are key to unlocking sustainable growth of nearshore production of shellfish in North Carolina and beyond.

The four-year project was funded in late 2020 by a $1 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture through the multiagency National Robotics Initiative 2.0.

It is being led by Sierra Young, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. She says that the team is focusing on water quality because it has important implications for the safety of consumers’ food and for producers’ profitability.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

Rock-bottom rockfish numbers drag down Chesapeake Bay health score: Report

January 5, 2021 — Despite progress on pollution and habitats, the Chesapeake Bay has received another low health grade from the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, this time due to issues with fisheries.

Results of the bi-annual State of the Bay report released Tuesday say the bay’s health scored a D+ in 2020.

Though most water quality measurements are showing improvement, the bay’s overall score was sunk by abysmal ratings on critical fisheries, including rockfish, oysters and shad.

Rockfish scored a 49 out of 100 on CBF’s scale, which on its own qualifies as a C+ grade. But that score represents a decrease of 17 points since 2018, the largest decline in any single indicator CBF has recorded in over a decade, said Chris Moore, senior regional ecosystem scientist with CBF.

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

NEW YORK: LI fishermen see tough days ahead as NYC restaurants back in lockdown

December 21, 2020 — With New York City restaurants back in lockdown, Long Island fishermen once again face the loss of one of the biggest markets for their fish as a choppy 2020 comes to a close.

A small measure of relief is being offered with federal stimulus finds, but fishermen have only till year’s end to apply.

Fishermen in the spring saw most wholesale prices tumble with restaurant closures statewide, then regain as summer opened outdoor dining and limited capacity at restaurants. The latest closure comes atop other setbacks, including the die-off for the second year in a row of Peconic Bay scallops, the sharp decline in the oyster industry, also tied to restaurant closures, and pressures such as ever-changing fishing quotas.

Read the full story at Newsday

FLORIDA: Shrinking Population Forces Shutdown of Oyster Harvesting in Florida Bay

December 17, 2020 — Florida officials voted Wednesday to shut down oyster harvesting in Apalachicola Bay, a major source of the nation’s supply, due to a diminished population caused by low freshwater flows.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved a measure that will suspend all harvesting of wild oysters from the bay through December 2025, or “until 300 bags per acre of adult oysters can be found on a significant number of reefs.”

The final rule also bans on-the-water possession of oyster harvesting equipment in Apalachicola Bay, which encompasses St. George Sound, East Bay, Indian Lagoon and St. Vincent Sound. Their canals, channels, rivers and creeks are also off-limits to harvesting for the next five years.

Historically, nearly 90% of Florida’s commercial oyster harvest and about 10% of the entire U.S. supply came from Apalachicola Bay, according to the commission.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Debate swirls around proposed regulation that could set aside more parts of the Chesapeake Bay for commercial oyster harvest

December 14, 2020 — Tal Petty calls the water in his corner of the Patuxent River “magic.”

The oysters living in its depths draw a special mineral taste from clay on the river floor, and fossils along the shore, he said. And those oysters wouldn’t even be there if it weren’t for Petty, who grows them in underwater cages before selling them nationwide.

His business is quite a bit different from that of traditional watermen, who tong the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries for wild oysters. And environmentalists argue it’s an improvement, since adding oysters to the bay means adding thousands of natural filters capable of removing harmful nitrogen and sediment as they feed.

Lately, however, oyster farmers and watermen have been at odds over a regulation that could make it more difficult for oyster farming operations like Petty’s Hollywood Oyster Company to get started.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering a rule that would make any area of the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries with five or more wild oysters per square meter eligible to become a “public shellfish fishery area.” These zones are exclusively for commercial harvesters.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Aid for Growers With Oysters Too Big for the Half-Shell

December 14, 2020 — The pandemic has seriously impacted many who fish or work on the water for a living. With restaurants and the food service industry taking a big hit, the demand for various seafood products, including oysters, has been severely curtailed. As a result, many of the oysters raised by oyster farmers have grown to a size that is considered too large for sale and general consumption.

The good news is that a lot of those oysters, which can live well over 10 years, will find a new home, back in the water and not served on a restaurant plate, thanks to a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Last month, the organizations combined forces to launch the Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration program, which will extend $2 million in payments to oyster farmers to support more than 100 shellfish companies and help preserve over 200 jobs in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and Washington State. Simultaneously, over five million of the older oysters will be deployed to rebuild 27 acres of imperiled native shellfish reefs across 20 restoration sites.

On Long Island, the program will begin to buy oysters from local farmers to use in nearby oyster reef restoration sites, including ones in Shinnecock and Moriches Bays. Over the next few weeks, several Long Island oyster growers will deliver 350,000 oysters so that they can be counted, cleaned, recorded, and, most importantly, replanted for restoration.

Read the full story at the East Hampton Star

MASSACHUSETTS: Weekend farmers market aims to help local shellfishermen

December 10, 2020 — A first-of-its-kind shellfish farmers market promises to get oysters from Wellfleet Bay to the dinner plate in record time.

Shellfishermen will be able to sell their oysters to customers on Saturdays from noon to 2 p.m. beginning this weekend at the Wellfleet Marina. The market will run through May 1.

The initiative came after a monthlong effort led by the town’s shellfish constable, Nancy Civetta, with assistance from the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association and Holbrook Oyster. Civetta was able to get approvals from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Division of Marine Fisheries to hold the event.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times