The COVID-19 pandemic caused an industry-wide slow down for commercial oyster farming early last summer, which led to an opportunity to rethink how oyster habitat can be restored and created.
As sales began to slow due to restaurant closings, oyster farmers were forced to hold market-ready oysters on the farms until they had grown beyond the preferred size of the premium half-shell market. Therefore, with support from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Alabama Marine Resources Division, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, Alabama Power Foundation (Alabama farms only) and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, funds were directed to purchase a portion of large (3”+) single oysters to use in a pilot study of these oysters as “reef jump-starters.”
By putting the oysters on reef sites that will not be harvested, there was an opportunity for some of them to spawn as well as provide cultch for oyster larvae to settle on.
In August, a base program began and commercially licensed farms (defined by permit) in Alabama and Mississippi, regardless of past production, were eligible to provide up to 10,000 oysters (3”+). The oysters were then delivered to designated locations on specified times and dates coordinated with the agencies in both states. To participate, farms had to hold all current necessary permits and licenses and be willing and able to submit documentation to The University of Southern Mississippi to receive payments from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.
Additionally, funds were used to hire vessels for deploying the oysters. In October, a second round of the CORE base program was held and additional oysters were deployed on the site in Alabama.
Thus far, Alabama has had five farms participate in the CORE Program deploying 42,000 oysters for restoration worth $13,860, and Mississippi has had two farms participate in the CORE Program deploying 18,000 oysters for restoration ($5,940).
As the industry slowdown due to the pandemic continues, stakeholders are being engage on how to best use the remaining funds to meet the objectives of the program, which will benefit the farmers and the habitat for oysters.
Meet the author
Russell "Rusty" Grice
Oyster Aquaculture Business Specialist
Rusty joined Sea Grant in 2016. He helps oyster farmers navigate requirements for starting farms, and he helps streamline the harvest reporting process for existing farms. His focus is on... Read more
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