Oyster Aquaculture is Alive and Well on the Creek

One of the many benefits of living on the creek is having access to its bountiful seafood. Blue crabs and fish abound and recently oysters have been reintroduced.  Local companies like Chesapeake Bay
Oyster Company and Capt. Tom's Oyster Floats raise and sell seed (or spat) to residents for oyster farming.

They also sell floats of various sizes to raise the oysters at your very own dock!  A new breed of
sterile oyster has been developed making the old adage " Eat oysters only in months containing the
letter r" a thing of the past.  Sterile oysters can't spawn making them tasty throughout the year.
Floats keep the oysters close to the water's surface which makes them more disease resistant
 and easier to harvest.

From start to finish it takes roughly a year and a half to go from seed to grilling size.  Maintenance
is as easy as hosing off the float, particularly in warmer months, to remove algae.  Small blue crabs
sneak in through the grate and can devour the oysters over time.  We usually pull them when we remove oysters to be eaten.

We always pressure wash our oysters before grilling them.  This removes algae and any barnacles
which took up residence on the shell.  To cook them, we simply place the clean oysters on a preheated grill and cover with a water soaked piece of burlap without closing the grill top.  We roast the oysters until they just begin to open which takes roughly 4-5 minutes.  Afterward, we open the
oysters with our all time favorite oyster knife  and serve.

                                 For most visitors, home grown oysters are a bit of a novelty.

I, myself, am not an oyster fan but there are other reasons to grow them.  One oyster can filter
roughly 50 gallons of water in a single day.  Multiply that many times over and the water quality of the creek benefits greatly.  Water clarity allows sunlight to reach the bottom of the creek which promotes the growth of sea grass and creates a healthy living environment for all forms of sea life.