Saving Seafood

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

New Jersey growers deliver 240,000 oysters for reef restoration

December 4, 2020 — In a year of brutal downturns in demand, struggling oyster growers have one faint bright spot: A $2 million national initiative to buy 5 million surplus oysters for use in habitat restoration projects.

On Thursday 240,000 of those shellfish were barged to a reef in Little Egg Harbor for planting on the Tuckerton Reef site. Growers converged the day before at the Parsons Mariculture dock in Tuckerton, N.J., meeting with owner Dale Parsons and Bill Shadel, coastal project manager for The Nature Conservancy.

In October the group announced it was starting the Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR) initiative, a two-year program to extend $2 million in payments to oyster farmers, support more than 100 shellfish companies and preserve over 200 industry jobs in northern New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Washington state.

Oysters purchased in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts will be replanted to rebuild 27 acres of native shellfish reefs on 20 restoration sites around the coasts.

The program is “benefitting the ecosystem and giving us a boost,” said Tommy Burke, who operates his Sloop Point Oyster Farms in upper Barnegat Bay.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

The simple food that fights climate change

December 3, 2020 — Simmering in pots around the world is a food that could spark a revolution. Most of us have probably eaten it at some point, but it’s an overlooked part of our diet. This natural source of protein is laden with essential nutrients that could fulfil the dietary needs of nearly one billion people in the most vulnerable populations on the planet. It could be a viable alternative to intensively-farmed meats such as beef. And it comes with smorgasbord of environmental and sociological gains.

The animals that are the source of this food require no feeding, need no antibiotics or agrochemicals to farm. And they actively sequester carbon. They can even protect fragile ecosystems by cleaning the water they live in. Welcome to the remarkable and unglamorous world of the bivalve.

This biological corner of our oceanic ecology is not as attention-grabbing as fish or mesmerising as a deep-sea octopus. Instead it includes the evolutionarily simpler family of shell-dwelling creatures consisting of mussels, clams, oysters and scallops. These hinge shelled molluscs have quietly embraced the lower reaches of the food chain as filter feeders, sustaining themselves on microscopic organic matter present in the waters of their immediate environment.

Their lowly status, however, perhaps means their potential has been largely overlooked. But as the world attempts to find ways of feeding a growing population with less environmental impact, many experts believe we may need to make these shellfish a larger part of our diet.

“Bivalves have the remarkable potential to provide people with food that is not only environmentally sustainable but also nutrient dense,” says David Willer, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Read the full story at BBC

LDWF Seeks Public Input on Draft of Louisiana Oyster Management and Rehabilitation Strategic Plan

November 24, 2020 — The following was released by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries:

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) is seeking public comment from all coastal stakeholders regarding its draft “Louisiana Oyster Management and Rehabilitation Strategic Plan.”

The LDWF Office of Fisheries is responsible for the protection, conservation and replenishment of Louisiana’s renewable, aquatic natural resources, including Louisiana oysters.  In the wake of Louisiana’s recent man-made and natural disasters, this crucial task has never been as important as it is today.

The 2019 oyster stock assessment indicates that Louisiana is experiencing the lowest stock size in the public oyster areas ever recorded, according to the Strategic Plan draft. The decline, according to the draft, is not a result of any single event, but reflects the effects of a myriad of population stressors. Those include changes in hydrology, extreme weather events, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill/response activities, harvest pressure, and most notably, the 2018-2019 Mississippi River flooding event.

“This plan contains initiatives that have the potential to assist in the oyster rehabilitation process,” said Patrick Banks, LDWF Assistant Secretary for Fisheries. “It can increase the productivity and viability of the public oyster areas in Louisiana, aid the oyster industry in adjusting to a changing coast, and allow the industry to be sustainable into the future.”

Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office directed LDWF to begin developing the plan in 2019. The Louisiana Legislature further instructed LDWF through the passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 56 during the 2020 legislative session.

Members of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), and the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities assisted in the development of the plan draft. Additionally, CPRA committed significant funding to help LDWF implement initiatives in the plan.

“CPRA is proud to be a part of this strategic plan to assist the oyster industry and the oyster resource itself,” said CPRA Executive Director Bren Haase. “This is an important part of our central mission, the implementation of projects that benefit our coastal habitats as well as our working coast.”

According to the draft, it will cost approximately $132.3 million to fund all initiatives in the plan, which will take an estimated five years, at a minimum, to implement.

The 17-page plan is available at: https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/assets/Resources/Publications/Oyster/Oyster-Strategic-Plan—Public-Notice-Draft.pdf

LDWF will assemble and consider comments submitted by December 4, 2020, and will finalize the plan document for submission to the Governor’s Office and the Legislature later this year.   Comments can be submitted via email to Carolina Bourque, LDWF Oyster Program Manager, at cbourque@wlf.la.gov or by regular mail to Carolina Bourque, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898.

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘It’s just depressing’: As the pandemic worsens, oystermen struggle to remain afloat

November 23, 2020 — After raking up the last of the overgrown oysters and heaving them onto his small barge, Bruce Silverbrand puttered a mile or so to a shallow bend in Buttermilk Bay, where his daughter dumped the shellfish onto a growing reef of brackish discards.

Forsaking such a valuable delicacy would be unthinkable in normal times, but with environmental advocacy groups buying nearly a quarter of his annual crop to help reconstruct vital coastal reefs, the burly oysterman was happy to unload them, even at a reduced price.

The pandemic has hurt many businesses since March, but it has been particularly painful for the oyster industry. Unlike other seafood harvesters that have managed to sustain their businesses through the pandemic by selling to supermarkets, large institutions, and in some cases directly to consumers, nearly all oysters are sold at restaurants.

“Everybody is suffering through this,” said Silverbrand, who grows 450,000 oysters a year. “We’re trying our best to limp through this and come out on the other side. Some of us will make it; some of us won’t.”

Between March and October, sales from the state’s oyster growers plummeted by 50 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries. Compared with the previous five years, oyster sales have declined 43 percent.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

For the first time, Virginia is setting aside capital funds to restore its oyster population

November 23, 2020 — Virginia is setting $10 million in new funding for oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay, focusing on the Piankatank, Great Wicomico and York Rivers.

It marks the first time the state is using capital funds, usually reserved for building state facilities and roads, to restore natural resources.

Bringing oyster populations back has been a top priority because the shellfish play a key role in cleaning the bay. Oyster reefs also protect shorelines from erosion and are habitats for crabs and fish, and oysters are an important commercial fishery.

The state’s stepped up efforts with the signing of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement in 2014 have restored 240.5 acres of oyster habitat, on top of the earlier restoration of 473 acres. The agreements set a goal of restoring oyster populations in 10 Bay tributaries by 2025.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Experts worry coronavirus will cut oyster demand in Maryland

November 2, 2020 — Sitting outside Mama’s on the Half Shell restaurant in Canton, Alisha Gladfelter painted the newly christened Shuck Shack, an outdoor oyster bar complete with a grill fashioned from a keg. The swirl of a mermaid’s tail — part of the restaurant’s logo — flowed from the tip of her paintbrush.

Mama’s Shuck Shack is a sign of the times, as much as homemade face masks and ubiquitous bottles of hand sanitizer, an effort to encourage passersby to try one of the succulent bivalves or a dozen, either roasted or raw.

Maryland’s wild oyster season started in October, yet restaurants, watermen and others worry the coronavirus pandemic will stifle demand for the bay’s briny bounty. With few people dining out at restaurants and colder weather limiting outdoor dining, some in the seafood industry worry customers won’t venture out for oysters on the half shell and po’ boys.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Nature Conservancy purchasing millions of surplus oysters to offset COVID-19 losses

October 21, 2020 — The Nature Conservancy announced 21 October it plans to help struggling oyster farmers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by purchasing five million surplus oysters.

The oysters, according to a release from The Nature Conservancy, will be used in nearby oyster restoration projects in order to rebuild 27 acres of “imperiled native shellfish reefs.” Partnering on the initiative are The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the action is being coordinated with efforts taken by NOAA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Read the full story at Seafood Source