"A rising tide lifts all oyster boats"
Ronnie Gist with the Maryland Industrial Partnerships grant program (MIPS) is about to enjoy a fresh oyster from our lease in St. George Creek. We were awarded a grant through this program to research alternative “in-water” setting methods compared to traditional land-based setting systems.
In September I had an opportunity to do some work renovating condos on Siesta Key in Florida. Swimming and laying on the beach after work, not bad. Every restaurant offered oysters but I didn’t see any Chesapeake’s on the menus… yet.
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Stylochus, or as we call em, “Pigglies”, are a species of flatworm that eat young oyster spat. They are effective predators and can greatly increase spat mortality densely set areas.
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One year old spat on shell. Purdy!
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All this shell is gone now. All moved, one bushel at a time, to our lease bottom. Its delivered to the property by tractor-trailer then allowed to age before going overboard.