Oyster Farmers Who Feared Going Broke Brace for Summer Boom

At Cape May Salt Oyster Farms in South Jersey, the state’s largest aquaculture company, home-delivery sales have soared and restaurant orders have gone “through the roof,” said Brian Harman, the manager.

“People are ready to spend their money and be adventurous and eat new things,” he said. “I think we’ve turned the corner.”

Cape May Salt opened in 1997 as one of the state’s aquaculture pioneers, operating in the Delaware Bay alongside fishing companies that harvest wild oysters. Today, amid diners’ surging interest in oysters with varied flavor profiles, New Jersey is home to about 30 aquaculture growers, most of whom lease water parcels from the state and produce oysters for the half-shell.

Still, in spite of its ample coastline, the region’s number of oyster farms lags far behind states like Virginia, Washington and Massachusetts, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

No region of the aquaculture industry was spared as the virus halted indoor dining. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scrambled to prop up growers, offering grants that helped farmers in several Northeast states, including New Hampshire and Connecticut, and as far away as Alabama.

Lisa Calvo, a marine scientist at Rutgers University who also farms oysters in the Delaware Bay, wrote a grant proposal that led to the first buyback program in New Jersey. Sixteen growers sold a total of 79,000 oysters for 65 cents apiece, resulting in a payday of about $3,200 each.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/nyregion/oysters-summer-boom.html