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Growing oysters and an industry in the Delaware, Rehoboth Bays

October 1, 2024 |By Jennifer Antonik

|Ed Hale and Alyssa Campbell of the Delaware Sea Grant show off oyster seed at various life stages from inside the hatchery in Lewes. l PHOTO BY ERIC CROSSAN — Univ. of Delaware Oyster Sea Grant Program 9-2024

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LEWES — The world is Delaware’s oyster, according to professionals in a new up and coming industry – the aquaculture industry. But the field of rearing and harvesting oysters can be an expensive one to navigate these days. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines aquaculture as the breeding, rearing of harvesting fish, shellfish, algae and more, Delaware state officials are focused on the potential of oyster farms in the Rehoboth and Delaware Bays, as well as clams in the Assawoman Bay. Delaware issued the first leases to aquaculture-based oyster farmers in 2017 and saw its first harvest in 2018. There are now nine commercial eastern oyster leases in Delaware’s Inland Bays, according to Delaware’s Division of Fish and Wildlife’s 2023 Shellfish Aquaculture Report. The Delaware Sea Grant, a collaboration between the University of Delaware, Delaware State University and industry professionals, also has a scientific aquaculture license in the First State. So far, oyster farms brought in $1.27 million in sales, farm value and other factors for its 344,000 oysters sold in 2022, according to Dr. Ed Hale, assistant professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy. But still, that pales in comparison to Rhode Island’s 246 farmers who sold a collective 10,957,557 oysters in the same year – generating a potential economic impact of up to $40 million. But still, Hale and others believe the First State has potential to reach those numbers. In 2022, the Delaware Sea Grant and the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays issued a report that valued the state’s aquaculture industry at $4.5 billion every year and could create 35,000 jobs in the state. That potential excites newcomers like Alan Davis of Inland Bay Shellfisheries. He said the oysters found in the coastal areas surrounding the First State are some of the best in the world, offering local fishermen a unique opportunity to start a business with a quality product at the ground floor level. Davis joined the industry in 2019, a year and a half after regulations in Delaware opened the opportunity up to business owners wishing to start a new venture. Prior to becoming a commercial fisherman, he was a successful lawyer in the Georgetown area. “I literally harvested my first oysters in the middle of the [COVID-19] shutdown,” he recalled. “There were only maybe five other people actually producing at that time or on the cusp of producing when I got in. Nobody had done oyster aquaculture in Delaware prior to that and nobody really had an idea of what it would take here.” Like other farmers in the area, Davis said he’s looking forward to calmer waters as regulations continue to smooth out, possibly allowing for access to more technology and space while increasing opportunities and profitability. “Most of the people who were involved when I got involved, are no longer involved,” Davis told the Delaware Business Times. “We’re just now figuring out what the industry needs to grow and be individually prosperous while meeting the vision that was originally set for us by the legislature. It’s getting better as time goes on.” Aquaculture, Davis views, is essentially a new look at profitability in the fishing and aquatics industries with the older, tried and true flare of farming added into the mix. When it comes to oysters, currently the only aquaculture-based product stemming from the Delaware and Rehoboth Bays, the business has started to see a profit even though accessing the funds to start up a business that is now kept to low-technology methods has proved a challenge. “At first, nobody got in and nobody was making a profit. So, about a year ago, we held a symposium and asked, ‘What does the industry need?’ What we found was that we needed an educational pipeline, infrastructure and access to capital, protection for the product in the form of insurance and other broad brush things,” Davis said. “We’re sort of on the cusp of a new frontier and we need to be better prepared.” Growing an industry Hale, who helps run the hatchery in Lewes, agreed with the list of challenges adding that it’s also been an uphill battle for the Delaware Sea Grant Program. “From an industry standpoint, Delaware is about 10 years behind everyone else,” he told DBT. “When it costs about $100,000 to $150,000 to startup, who has the capital available? So it ends up being a lot of retirees associated with the industry versus younger people, but we’re working to get more workforce development options on hand to change that.” [caption id="attachment_240124" align="alignleft" width="485"]

Ed Hale and Alyssa Campbell of the Delaware Sea Grant show off oyster seed at various life stages from inside the hatchery in Lewes. l PHOTO BY ERIC CROSSAN[/caption] Hale and his colleagues at the Delaware Sea Grant have already worked to help alleviate some of the burden on new farmers by improving the process by which they can obtain local oyster seed. The building in which a hatchery now sits has been renovated to the tune of at leasts $300,000 to allow for more oyster hatchery space, including an algae growth section to feed the oysters. More space is still needed and the group is looking forward to expansion in the near future. Inside of its 800 square feet, the Delaware Sea Grant’s hatchery in Lewes produces oysters from larvae to seed, also known as spat, for farmers to purchase to grow on their own and harvest later, or for restorative purposes. Oyster larvae is as tiny as a grain of salt, but lab technicians can extract these tiny creatures and help them find one of two growth patterns - either a larger oyster shell to grow on, best used for the “half-shell” oysters found in oyster bars or restaurants, or crushed up oyster shell to grow in bulk which is a practice often used in “bottom-culture,” or the practice of farming oysters from the bottom of the water, or coastal restorative work. While the terms seed and spat are often used interchangeably, oyster spat specifically refers to an oyster after it has latched on to a shell or hard substrate. Davis told DBT that the two methods tend to yield wildly different results with different business needs behind the scenes, as well. “In some ways, [bottom-culture] is intended to improve the natural product or the natural oyster beds that are already in the Delaware Bay and to provide those people that have the leased grounds the opportunity to harvest what they’ve sown. It takes bigger boats, deeper water and it’s more technically difficult to make a go of. A small farmer couldn’t do it. It takes investment in the big boats to be able to farm wild oysters like that and they are not the same quality of product like what I produce with aquaculture.” When Davis gets oyster seed for his own aquaculture-based farming practices, Delaware regulations state that he has to use a bag, cage or other constraint to keep the oysters contained while in the water - the same is not true for the older bottom-culture farming practices, he added. “Aquaculture is more driven toward the half-shell market. My goal is to grow an oyster that is rounded, well-cupped, beautiful and a single oyster. When I sell my oysters at SoDel, for example, I’m nearing $1 per oyster. I would never get that if I farmed using bottom-culture practices. They’re getting $40 or $50 a bushel [about 100 oysters]. These are two very different industries - half-shell market versus wild,” he said. Both industries have a place in the coastal areas of Delaware and because the process to perfect local practices behind the scenes has been scientific in nature, the hatchery staff and students have done a lot of experimenting to better understand the art of farming oyster seed since the group first received a grant from the state of Delaware in 2022. “And it’s working. We went from 1,000 seeds in our first year to 600,000 last year,” Hale said. “The increase significantly impacts our local farmers. At 600,000 seeds, we are able to give the local farmers what they need. If we are able to start producing more, we’ll likely be able to send seed to farmers in other areas, too.” Benefiting an industry and community The aquatic-based farming practices professionals like Hale and Davis are trying to hone in on have more than just economic benefits with both citing positive movements in environmental activity, as well. “Something I’m actively studying along with industry growth are the environmental benefits of aquaculture or oyster farming. We can use it for industry-based practices, but we can also use it for restoration and I think that is fascinating,” Hale told DBT. Oysters, particularly the remote-set seed or seed placed on crushed up oyster shell or substrate, can benefit the nearby coastal areas by providing a number of habitats for other marine life while also filtering the water at 10 to 15 gallons per day per oyster. “Imagine what we could do if we really get into those numbers and try to make a difference in the environment,” he asked. “We’re all kind of moving forward with this and it’s positive environmentally and economically for our coastal communities.” Those benefits, Davis added, happen per farmer and per oyster in very little land, partly due to restrictions placed on farmers by the state of Delaware. “They are working on hopefully making them better now. They were cautious at the beginning and rightfully so. But, I think we’ve proven that we can use the land and sea well for this venture. There are just some things that make it a bit difficult to proceed profitably,” Davis said. For example, he uses rope, pots and bags to collect his oysters and fish - tools that have been around for decades. Some of the state regulations have limited the technology used in oyster harvesting, but Davis said that wasn’t the only issue. “We also don’t have the space needed to use some of the technology seen in other parts of the world,” he said. “The tech you see in other parts of the world to run down the cages really needs about half a mile of cages to make it worth your while. We just can’t do that here.” Davis explained that oyster farmers in the Rehoboth and Delaware Bays have maximized their space and improved on their own practices in the meantime, each coming in at about 1-acre of leased farming space each. Technology seen on the Delaware coast when it comes to aquaculture is primarily based in business management tools which can help with the statistical analysis of farming and a dabbling of artificial intelligence used to help farmers improve on their space and techniques. “I’m making a profit, I’m doing OK. What we’re really behind on is the marketing side of things. We grow a great product and I don’t just mean me as a single farmer. In the Delaware Bay, I’ll put that oyster up against any other oyster in the country and I’ll tell you they’re always better than the rest,” Davis said. “But it’s a catch 22 because nobody knows that we have this great product, so they’re not buying them. But what we’re producing, we can sell locally.”