I knew mussels had feet (more on this later), but do they really wear socks?

Excerpt from log notes from Friday November 4, 2011

Salt Water Farms  RI:

It was blowing 25kts steady out of the north so getting on the line wasn’t the easiest thing. But I put all of the socks out in the order Scott suggested and added some floats.

So what exactly are we talking about here?  Why would we be putting socks in the water?

The sock we’re talking about is actually a mesh material that seed mussels are packed into (think about stuffing sausage).  Once the seeds, adorable little baby mussels less than an inch long, are “socked” the sock is attached to a rope that extends beneath the surface of the water.  As the mussels grow they push their way through the openings in the mesh socking material; they are now large enough to stay attached to the rope by their byssus, or beard as most of us know it.  At this point, about six to eight months after “planting”, the mussels resemble a bunch of grapes and they are getting close to market size.  We don’t need to feed them, they feed naturally on the nutrients in the water, and best of all no artificial hormones are involved here!  Hopefully by next summer we’ll be harvesting these mussels and bringing them to market.

These babies were set on November 4;  we’ll keep you posted on their progress!

Salt Water Farms is a progressive shellfish farm that puts emphasis on the quality of its products, and uses innovative methods to enhance production.

The primary task an oyster farmer must contend with is fouling of the gear with marine organisms. “Biofouling” prohibits growth because many of the organisms are filter feeders like the oysters, and compete for food. Fouling also weighs down the gear making it difficult, or even dangerous to work on the line. Traditionally, we would spend the majority of the summer power washing set after set of oyster cages until your eyes are about ready to fall out of your head. Currently, we are preparing a barge that will make life on the oyster farm easy (or at least easier) because it will allow us to air dry the cages to control fouling. Air drying is an effective method to kill the marine organisms without extra labor and without killing the oysters. This could very well be the first step in a fouling free future.

One marine organism that would weigh down the gear more than any other and would attach to just about every part of the gear is known as Mytilus edulis. The blue mussel was a serious nuisance on our farm that we would blast with a power washer until the lines were clear and the water was murky with mussel guts. Being the true mussel man he is, Bill Silkes contacted friends at UNH and farmers from Canada to help to start cultivating mussels in Rhode Island.  Salt Water Farms now collects the mussel seed from the oyster lines, puts them into socks, and grows the highest quality rope grown mussels in the state. Currently, we are trying to expand this portion of Salt Water Farms because we see it as a resourceful way to increase food production of Rhode Island waters.

Now back to the oysters. Due to our location off of Aquidneck Island the oysters grow very rapidly because there is so much available food in the water column. This is an overall good thing, but some of the oysters would develop a thin shell because of the fast growth. The research and development team at Salt Water Farms had to come up with a contraption that would chip away at the new growth and ensure the formation of the deep cup oyster that is so desirable. This contraption is known as the tumbler and it takes entire sets of oysters into a revolving pen that chips each individual oyster before they are placed back into the water to recover. It has had much success because the oysters that have been tumbled now have a stronger hinge (important for shucking), and a deeper cup. Quonset Point Oysters® tend to have the deepest cup of all our oysters, Beaver Tails Oysters® are the largest, and Umami Oysters are nice cocktail oysters with a sweet flavor.

As you might be able to tell there are several people working tireless hours to come up with innovations that will set our farm apart from others. We began this process when the farm first started and will continue it forever because new ideas are interesting and there is an endless search for the best way to farm shellfish.

Sunrise over Narragansett Bay paints a timeless portrait in my mind. Light winds and a glassy water surface mean that today will be a great day to plant the juvenile oyster spat we picked up from the ferry last night. At six thirty AM the seed is being transferred by hand from the old GMC truck onto the New Hope, and New Shell oyster boats. In the background of my mind the booming voice of Bill Silkes cries “Be careful these are live animals we’re dealing with here!” When all of the seed is on deck Captains Mark Goerner and Adam Silkes cast the lines to the dock, and the boats begin their slow steam over to the 20 acre farm in Narragansett Bays glacially carved east passage.

The two separate boats head to different areas of the farm to plant their load of seed. The New Hope locks onto North 13 and begins driving forward to find empty trays that have been deployed in previous weeks. Each long line contains 63 sets, each set contains six cages, and each cage contains 200 oysters. This means that a long line will have about seventy five thousand Quonset point Choice Oysters at any given time. When we get to the first set of the day the burlap bag full of juveniles is dumped onto the table, and the planting begins.

Often times people think of oysters as a fishery because they are harvested from the ocean. The idea of aquaculture is not completely understood in our society, and often times it is downcast because of false accusations of environmental pollution. On the contrary, oysters, which filter up to 50 liters of ocean water per day, help to clear the bay of algae which could be detrimental to ecosystems if allowed to build to harmful levels. Oysters turn excess nitrogen that seeps into the water from lawn fertilizers into one of the highest quality protein sources in the world. Aquaculture is gaining momentum in North America, and does not stand against fisheries, but rather to fully utilize our available resources.

Planting our oysters seems like a slow meticulous process; 200 to a tray for 500 consecutive trays, but this precision is necessary to get a high quality final product. The planting continues once a week through late May, and June, with millions of juvenile oyster seed being planted at Salt Water Farms. Farming the ocean draws many parallels to farming the land; plant your seed, watch it grow, clear the weeds, cut back growth to optimize output, and harvest your final product. This is an age old concept brought back to life off Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.