A Duxbury Bay Sunrise; Harvesting with Island Creek Oysters

Last week I joined the Island Creek Oyster crew for a spring tide harvest in Duxbury bay. We slipped out onto the water at 5am, beneath a sky the color of dark blue ink from a ballpoint pen. The sun finally fought through the overcast sky, spilling like gold onto the sand as the water disappeared from the bay. The crew worked for hours on their hands and knees, plucking the oysters from the sand and mud, filling crate after crate until the tide came back in and the sun shone brightly on their backs. After a coffee break the crew started the culling process on a raft anchored off shore. The oysters are sorted by size, bagged and labeled for delivery.

This is part of the farm to table series I'm working on with Nona Brooklyn. My previous post has images from my shoot at Hillside with Dana Hale of ICO.

Click the first photo for slideshow viewing.

Oysters start out as "seed" the size of a sand grain. They are grown in screens and then cages until they are big enough to disperse loose  in the bay.

Culling

A culling ring is sometimes used to measure oysters.

Shore and Mark use a machine to sort the baby oysters by size.

Checking the oysters in the screens to see if they are big enough to sort and move to the next phase.

Mark tried his luck at the jumping bluefish as we head back from the river. I'm sure he would like you all to know that he actually caught two fish on the same cast.