Tag Archives: Oyster farming
Spinning Chesapeake Gold
Ten years ago, Johnny Shockley came face-to-face with a future he couldn’t fathom: One day, perhaps soon, he’d no longer make his living as a waterman. The third generation of his family to fish the waters around Hoopers Island, he’d oystered and crabbed with his father from a young age. They gave up on oysters after the Chesapeake Bay oyster populations collapsed, sticking with blue crabs. Those declined too. He spent two decades running the family’s retail seafood market in Salisbury. Then it closed. He discouraged his son from crab-potting and was convinced he couldn’t hold on much longer either. >click to read<17:47
Huge scallop harvest, growth in oyster farming boost East End
Since the scallop season opened with a strong start in early November, fish dealers have been buying hundreds of pounds a day. The surge in volume is keeping fishermen, shuckers, wholesalers and seafood store owners busy, but it has also pushed prices down. Scallops are selling for less than $20 a pound, in some cases as low as $15, down from around $35 last year.,, Nate Phillips, whose family owns Alice’s Fish Market in Greenport, has been supplying the shop with all the bay scallops it can sell. Each morning he takes his small fishing boat loaded with metal dredges and a sorting table to state waters not far from his Greenport shop to catch his daily quota of 10 bushels.Video, click here to read the story 16:26
Ken Cuccinelli’s post-politics endeavor: oyster farming
After losing an election, some politicians become lobbyists. Others immediately begin running for another office. Cuccinelli helped start an oyster farm on 
, in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Praised on Fox News, scoffed at by “The Daily Show,” the outspoken conservative now seems focused on creating a new source of sustainable jobs for people on Tangier. And on how the oysters taste. Read the rest 21:50
A New Bounty of Oysters in Maryland, but There Is a Snag
The booming oyster business has come into conflict with the watermen of this region, who argue that the cages used to cultivate oysters are a menace to fishing lines and crab pots, Read the rest here 07:47
Laura Ward trades in art career for life of oyster farming
Lifelong artist turned oyster farmer Laura Ward has been operating her oyster farm, Fox Point Oysters, in Little Bay for the past three years. The Dover resident’s new career as a mollusc farmer was unexpected considering her original career path as a professional sculptor, woodworker and glassblower. Read more here 09:43
Oyster farming down to a science on the scenic shores of Mobjack Bay in Gloucester County, Va
On the scenic shores of Mobjack Bay in Gloucester County, oysters are being farmed by the millions. John Vigliotta owns one of the largest caged-oyster companies in the state, taking oysters from microscopic eggs to 3-inch cage-grown market beauties in the space of a year or two. Typically, oysters can take up to three years to reach market size. continued
