Episode 2: On the Half Shell

Preview (00:00)

Jed Bowers: Netarts Bay has the best oysters of pretty much anywhere, and there’s very few of ’em being served in Oregon. 

Segment 1: Why oysters? (0:17)

Megan: Welcome back for another episode of Tending the Tides. I’m Megan Foucht, one of your hosts for today and I’m joined by—

Jon: Jon Bonkoski. Megan and I are both staff at Ecotrust, the organization producing this podcast.

Megan: In this episode, we’re going to take a look at how oysters are grown, harvested, and eaten in Oregon. And I’m excited to get into a little bit of the history, as well as some of the challenges around cultivating oysters. But first, Jon, why are we spending so much time talking about oysters in this episode—and then we’re going to revisit them again in future episodes?

Jon: Well, first, oysters are rad little organisms! They filter water, they build habitat, and provide healthy protein-rich food source. So I’m just a huge fan of oysters in general. I also think that they’re really delicious. When it comes to aquaculture in Oregon, oysters are by far the largest product that we produce in the state. I think the total value of aquaculture products we make is $24 million a year. Oysters make up $20 milion of that, so they are the single largest product we produce. And there’s a saying in aquaculture: Aquaculture is agriculture, and oyster farming, I would say, is one of the original regenerative agriculture practices. 

Megan:  That is quite a percentage of the total economic value of aquaculture in Oregon, but I think we need to start working in some nuance here, because what we’re going to be talking about today is oyster farming. And yes, it is maybe the original kind of regenerative agriculture practice, but the distinction that we’re making is between kind of a wild harvest and farmed systems.

Jon:  Oysters have been on the Oregon coast for time immemorial. You know, people in Oregon have been eating oysters since humans existed here. And when white settlers arrived, that’s how the commercial process began. They were harvesting wild oysters. But Megan, you’ve done a little research into the history of the farming here.  Can you tell us a little more about what you’ve learned?

Megan: So first, I think we need to say it really was through the careful stewardship of Indigenous people who live here that native oysters and other resources like salmon and timber were really plentiful. And when white settlers arrived, they believed these resources would never run out. But we know that’s not the case. As you said, white settlers developed the commercial oyster fishery in Newport in 1863 to supply the San Francisco market—primarily through wild harvest. Oysters were also commercially harvested in the Coos Estuary around 1874. That wild harvest-based industry lasted a few decades, until native stocks were nearly depleted from overharvesting, along with the impacts of other industrial activities like intensive logging in watersheds throughout the Coast Range, that led to increased sedimentation in bays and estuaries. 

So here’s where the farming part comes in. In the early 1900s, the oyster industry was revived by the introduction of Ostrea gigas by J. Emy Tsukimato and Joe Miyagi, who were two friends from Olympia, Washington. They successfully transplanted oysters from Japan in Washington’s Samish Bay, and began farming them, jumpstarting the oyster farming industry we see in the Pacific Northwest today.

Segment 2: The history of oyster farming (4:02)

Liu: So we are probably one of the oldest oyster farms in Oregon, established in 1907. 

Megan: You’re hearing from:

Liu: Xin Liu, and I’m the owner of Oregon Oyster Farms. We bought the Oyster Company in 1997. So the pilings, the raft, have been there for almost about 90 years. 

Megan: Located in Newport, Oregon Oyster Farms is one of the oldest still-operating oyster farms on the Oregon coast. And, after more than 30 years in the industry, Xin Liu—who goes by Liu—knows a thing or two about oystering. 

Liu: The challenging part of any type of aquaculture is it’s like a type of art. You cannot just learn [it] from the textbook, and you need to have some practical experience. Just like in music. You see a lot of musicians; they want to make music. But, not a lot of them can put all the right notes together to make memorable music. Same thing for aquaculture. I want to make a memorable product for all my customers. That’s what got me into this aquaculture business. 

Typically we produce around 10,000 dozen oysters monthly in the shell, and we may have about 800 gallon oysters per month. And in general, in the Pacific Northwest, we depend on the hatchery seed. And they cannot reproduce themself. So the hatchery produces the seed. We buy the seed from them and plant them into Mother Nature. 

Megan: So Liu is talking about Ostrea gigas oysters, now called Pacific oysters, which are the main type of oysters being farmed now, and the ones transplanted from Japan by Tsukimato and Miyagi. So Jon, I didn’t know that Pacific oysters don’t naturally reproduce in Oregon. Why is that?

Jon: The primary reason is that our coastal waters are just too cold. There’s about a two- to three-week window in the summer when Pacific oysters spawn, and generally speaking, even in Oregon’s estuaries, the temperature threshold doesn’t quite reach what it needs to for larval development, so we rely on hatcheries to produce the spat—or the baby oysters—that we use in farming.

Megan: OK, so that’s interesting. Do Pacific oysters reproduce naturally in Washington state, where they do have more estuaries and different conditions?

Jon: Yes and no. In certain conditions you’ll see a natural set, but the frequency and intensity is highly variable and unpredictable for similar reasons: the water is just too cold. So Washington growers also rely on hatcheries to have a more consistent farm production. And what I mean by “natural set,” I’m referring to the ability for oysters to reproduce naturally. Because of biophysical differences between Oregon and Washington, there are times when a natural set does occur in Washington.

Megan: Jon, what do you mean by biophysical differences between Washington and Oregon? How does that difference support a natural set for oysters? 

Jon: As we heard in our last episode from Tom Calvanese, Oregon’s water is really cold, in part because of the upwelling on our coast. And if you’ve ever looked at a map of the Oregon coast, you’ll notice it’s almost a perfect straight line north-south, with a little curve around Astoria and maybe a little bump out in the south around Port Orford, but otherwise it’s pretty much a straight line. You’ll also notice there aren’t any barrier islands or anything that slows the wave action or break up the wind, so our coast gets that full brunt of what nature can bring. And that wind and wave action is why we get that upwelling, that has brought up the cold water and the nutrients. We also have a really narrow continental shelf along our coast. If you look at a map, you’ll see it gets really deep very quickly offshore. And finally, we have the Coast Mountain Range that captures a lot of rain, and our rivers then pretty much drop almost straight into the ocean with relatively small estuaries. Whereas in Washington, they have the Puget Sound and the Hood Canal and the outer coast of the Olympic Peninsula, where they have large tidal flats and estuaries, so they just have more areas that are more suited for potential oyster spawning. 

Megan: Right, and like we heard from Liu, that means that oyster farmers have to rely on oyster seed production farms, which are also a kind of aquaculture. And we’re actually going to hear a little bit more another oyster farmer: Jed Bowers, owner of Haystack Shellfish Company, who operates in Netarts Bay, who’s going to talk about exactly what you’re mentioning: what are some of the biophysical elements that make this coastline a good place to farm oysters—and also some of the challenges.

Jed: What’s neat about Netarts Bay is that it only has really one fresh water inlet, and so that’s a little Whiskey Creek. So everyday, the water exchanges twice, so we get fresh ocean water twice a day into our bay. 

My lease in Netarts Bay—I’m the only oyster farmer that’s legally allowed through my lease to grow oysters in the flip bag system. That’s because the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Agriculture—they’re trying to figure out how to protect the eelgrass that’s in Netarts Bay. And so by regulating our uses in Netarts Bay and what we’re doing, it helps preserve the eelgrass. And the eelgrass is important ’cause that’s basically the nursery for all the small little fish and crab and all types of things. And it’s the foundation of the health of our bay. So it’s important to take care of. 

Jon: It’s worth noting here that Jed and Liu both purchased and are operating their farms on existing leases. Starting a new oyster farm in Oregon is a totally different ball game.

Alex:  From the beginning, when a person wants to start a shellfish farm, right through to when their business is up and running and they’re selling product to the public, the Department of Agriculture is the one agency, really, that they work most closely with from start to finish.

Megan: You’re hearing from Alex Manderson, a shellfish specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which is the agency that regulates shellfish in Oregon.

Alex: It’s a small industry, but it’s actually quite an expensive one to regulate. It doesn’t really matter whether or not you have just a handful of growers, farmers in the state, or like a very large industry that’s like in Washington state. You have to have the same infrastructure there to regulate. So I think that’s probably one of the challenges which, ultimately, it can be a limiting factor for the industry, because we don’t have the resources to be able to approve a lot of shellfish-growing areas in the state simply because of the expense. We really only have like about seven growing areas in Oregon where you can commercially grow shellfish. And that’s primarily as a result of us having to concentrate resources on those bays.

It’s expensive just to get an area to open up, but then once you’ve got it open up, it has to be maintained as well. So it’s not just like a first initial cost outlay. It’s like, once you get an area approved and that you are, you are committed to keeping that area classified and able to be farmed into the future.

Megan: As Alex mentioned, there are only seven approved shellfish growing areas in the state, and any farm selling shellfish for human consumption must be located within one of these growing areas. ODA conducts water quality monitoring in the approved growing areas—monitoring which, as Alex said, incurs high maintenance costs—but is needed to protect the public from consuming unsafe shellfish.

To acquire a new lease, an oyster farmer meets with Alex at the Oregon Department of Agriculture and other state agencies like Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to make sure the site they’ve selected to farm is viable, and within an approved growing area. Then they submit a formal application with a filing fee. The application goes out for public comment and comment by any resource agencies, local, county, and city governments, and tribes. What else am I missing there, Jon?

Jon: The Oregon Department of Ag then summarizes all comments and makes a decision about whether the application is approved. If the oyster grower is successfully granted a lease, they essentially get a rental agreement with the state to utilize this public land for oyster farming. Running alongside this process, the new oyster farmer applies for a federal permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This comes into play for growers who want to put any structures in the water that could impede navigation. 

Megan: Right. So Liu uses pilings—essentially big poles that are driven into the estuary bottom—at one location where he farms, and these were put in place nearly 90 years ago, which lets him grow oysters on rafts, and keep his oysters in deeper water which he can access during any tide. And that’s not always the case, right Jon?

Jon: That’s right. Most growers don’t have that luxury. Here again is Jed, who grows in a flip bag system:

Jed:  The day in the life of an oyster farmer revolves around the tides, because the tides lead to access to our farms. And Netarts Bay is a really shallow bay, so, we get stuck out on the farm all the time. The boat sits on the sand, and we just gotta wait till the tide comes back in. But it can be all types of days. Like this morning, I was there at 4:30 this morning and avoiding the tide so I could get in and out. And today we brought oysters that we had harvested yesterday, and we sorted the oysters at our shop and then rebagged them in our float bags and then brought them back out to the bay to hang on the blocks—the lines that we, that my company uses to grow oysters. And then we grabbed more bags from the bay and brought ’em back into the shop. We sorted and harvested what we needed to sell today, then we put those on ice and put the oysters we’re gonna bring back out on ice so we could do it again tomorrow. 

Segment 3: Still the big one (14:50)

Megan: Most oyster farmers, including Liu and Jed, produce Pacific oysters, Ostrea gigas, the transplant oyster from Japanese waters we mentioned earlier in the episode. What we know as Pacific oysters were formerly known as Japanese oysters, but likely due to anti-Japanese sentiments and racism during World War II, they were renamed. And it’s this oyster, specifically the Miyagi strain from the Pacific coast of Japan, that still captures a large market share of both the domestic and international market for Oregon oysters. Ostrea gigas translates to “big oyster,” and in some cases, we’re talking really big, dinner-plate sized oysters. 

Liu: So normally, typically our oysters we have is—we called the special—10 inches and above. And the jumbos is 7 to 10 inches. Six to seven inches is the extra large. Five to six inches is large. And the 4.5 inches to about 5.5 is our mediums. And then 3.5 to 4.5 is our small. Then 3 to 3.5 are extra small. Two to three is a petite.

Jon: But, as Jed describes, offerings from Oregon oyster farmers are varied:

Jed: So we have three names: One we call a wine oyster. We do wine events, like we just did one at Bjornsen’s. And so we found that the wine industry prefers a smaller oyster, when we’re serving ’em raw. And so we do about an 1.5- to 2-inch oyster for them, and that we just call it the wine oyster. Our main oyster—our pride and joy—is called the torque, and that is between 2.5 to 3.5 inches with a really deep cup. They’re a specific size, shape that people are looking for [in] our torques. And then we have the Netarts, which is 3.5 to 4.5 inches, which as well has a really deep cup. Full of meat. Really nice, tumbled oyster.

Our oysters are described as a briny, kind of an oyster. Very briny, fresh. You’ll find the oyster industry has become a lot like the wine industry, where there’s an explanation for every type of flavor. Some will say they’re mushroomy, and others are earthy, and others are briny. And so ours are considered briny.

Megan: Licensing and production challenges aside, there is a critical component to ensuring Oregon’s oyster industry stays alive: And that’s you and me, the consumer. Many small oyster farm businesses are independent and find footholds in different niches. In addition to selling domestically, for example, Liu, who is originally from Qingdao, China exports Oregon Oyster Farm products to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.

Liu: I came to the US and understand the Chinese culture. Then I understand spending enough time in the US, I understand the culture here. I think culture plays a critical role for the business. You have the language skill and still the culture. You have to respect each other’s culture, how to minimize the difference and to improve the exposure to each other, to find the common ground, sell your product. To understand the culture is critical.

I look at the market. In the US market, they are very competitive on the smaller side. But on the bigger side, it’s less competitive, because it’s a lot of labor work. We have the unique location And we grow targeted bigger size oysters, and in Taiwan, because they have the typhoon season, they cannot do the bigger size oysters.  They don’t want the smaller. Less than five to six, they complain to me. So that’s why we target the Taiwan customer, because of not only my language skill, but also the sizes we can grow, they like. 

Jed:  Finding markets for oysters is not always so easy. I think I saw something that said like, 90 percent of Oregon harvested seafood goes anywhere but Oregon. To me that’s crazy. Like why? We have, I think, Netarts Bay has the best oysters pretty much anywhere, and there’s very few of ’em being served in Oregon. And that’s crazy. I do understand the logistics of getting my oysters to, say, Salem, McMinnville, Eugene, Bend—you know, getting those away from the coast is really hard. 

Segment 4: The potential to be more (19:58)

Megan: OK so Jon, you have a particular perspective here about the potential for the oyster sector to grow. And it’s not a perspective that just came out of nowhere. You’ve been working for years, in particular at Ecotrust, around issues related to coastal communities and fisheries. So, can you talk a little bit about what that perspective is that you have?

Jon: Yes, I definitely have a perspective. And as I said earlier, I’m a huge fan of oysters for a number of reasons, and I’m also an advocate for aquaculture in general. I think we have a huge potential for growth in Oregon in our aquaculture industry. That would create a really robust local food producing sector. I said earlier, Oregon produces about $24 million a year in aquaculture products, most of which is oysters. But that’s way behind our neighbors. Washington produces about $275 million a year. That’s second in the nation. California produces $118 million. That’s sixth in the nation. And Idaho produces $41 million. That’s tenth in the nation. So we are like way behind our neighbors when it comes to potential for aquaculture.

Megan: That’s pretty remarkable, considering we have this amazing coastline that we’ve been talking about. But why is Oregon’s aquaculture industry so small relative to its potential and relative to our neighbors?

Jon: I think there are a few things at play here. First, we have just generally a negative public perception of aquaculture in Oregon. And there’s a number of reasons for that. I think there were some big failures in the 1970s around salmon farming. And then you couple that with a really strong wild caught fisheries ethic in Oregon. One that Ecotrust has definitely been a part of advocating for. We love our wild capture fisheries here. And so I think that kind of general ethic has really swayed people away from aquaculture but there is so much more we can do in aquaculture beyond salmon farming and that’s not really what we’re focused on at all here there are ways for us to expand this industry that suits what Oregon is capable of what Oregon would like to do and I think oysters is one of those places where we could really look There are 22 estuaries in Oregon. We only grow in about seven of them. And I think there’s just a possibility for us to look at and expand on that and really look at what’s possible out there.

Megan: So going back to what you just said about the number of estuaries we have compared to the number we grow in, that’s kind of with good reason, right? Because that’s partly due to limitations like water quality and the suitability of various plots where Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have provided approval. But couldn’t we also draw on the expertise of oyster farmers to improve areas that are currently not suitable.

Jon: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think one of the things we want to recognize with oyster farming is that it is a stewardship practice. 

Megan: Everyone we’ve heard from today’s episode mentioned that stewardship ethic: Jed, Liu, and Alex all mentioned that bent toward caring for the environment, stewarding the environment, as a key part of the oyster industry. 

Jed: In mariculture, people really care about the environment that their product is being grown in. Take oysters for example, they’re a direct byproduct of where they’re grown. What is being dumped into the bay, on purpose or just naturally, is what they’re eating. It’s what they’re feeding. So it affects their taste, it affects their health, their growth. There’s so many things that go into it, and so we have a vested interest to take care of the bay that we’re working in. You have good stewards out there working to make sure that their product is as healthy and beneficial as possible. 

Liu: We need to produce good quality or high premium oysters to the customers, but also we interact with Mother Nature, as each location has its unique environmental conditions. You have to learn the physical, chemical, biological conditions. So you try to put all the factors together and make our work friendly to the ecosystem.

Alex:  I think when it’s done well, there’s great benefit to the ecosystem and just the general environment. I’ve had, in the industry, tell me a lot of different stories about how they’ve sort of moved into an area that was barren tideflats. That was nothing growing out there, just miles of sand. Once they started planting oysters, it really changed the whole ecosystem there. It slowed water movement down. It provided sort of a reef structure, that allowed eelgrass to move in, and then that means that then you have animals moving into that area as well. 

Segment 5: Reflection (25:29)

Megan:  Jon, considering that oyster farming is currently the most developed aquaculture industry on the Oregon coast, what are some lessons people could bring forward into what they’re hoping to develop?

Jon:  I think one of the major lessons is really the suitability question. Not every form of aquaculture is going to be suitable for us, both because of biophysical reasons and because of public perception. So I think really working towards that, recognizing what is the right types of aquaculture for Oregon, working within our processes here to steward lands and waters so that they are benefits from the practices of aquaculture, and really just building on that strengthening public perception. I think those are some lessons that we can push forward on as we try to expand and think about the industry.

Megan: One of the things that’s coming up for me, and we actually heard Tom Calvanese mention this as well, is just the work. It’s hard work. And oyster farmers are no stranger to that.

Jon:  Yeah, absolutely. This is extremely hard work, and I think, when we think about trying to build natural capital, trying to create a triple-bottom-line economy, we’re not the ones out there in the middle of the night in the winter when it’s raining and the tides are out flipping bags and doing all the hard work to grow food for our communities and for our state. And it’s a really important activity. And I think we should really honor the work and really hold the folks who are doing that hard work up and make sure that they’re part of the thinking about this, putting it forward. And I think that’s what really excites me about how we’re approaching this work on the coast and really thinking about how people are stewarding the lands and waters for Oregonians. 

Megan: The other thing that’s exciting to me is that we’re talking about estuaries, which are these natural places of abundance, and that we’re also talking about the relationship between estuaries and people, these relationships that have been in place for a long, long time. For millennia. 

Jon: It is exciting because there is this shared resource that is being stewarded for us by oyster farmers. You know, no one owns tidelands in Oregon, which is another difference between Washington and Oregon, and I think an important one. And we’re all part of this larger process of being stewards of the land and water. And I really think it’s an important piece of that human connection to our estuaries and to our coastlines. It’s, I think, a great and important part of the work we’re doing in our partnerships.

Megan: In our next episode, we’re going to hear more about the efforts to restore and the interest in eating Olympia oysters, the only native and naturally occurring oyster in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a preview of our conversation with Chef Jack Strong:

Jack: My name is Jack Strong. I am a part of the Confederate Tribes of Siletz Indians. My role here is Executive Chef of the Allison Inn & Spa. The Olympia oyster was also the oyster of the Pacific Northwest, Puget Sound and farther, down south in California. It tells the story, for me, of coastal peoples and our reliance on and how we were sustained by oysters, other shellfish, mussels. And how that was really a part of life for coastal tribes, which I relate to, being from the coast. 

Megan: This episode was hosted and co-written by me, Megan Foucht, and Jon Bonkoski. Edited by Suzie O’Neill. Co-produced by Emilie Chen, Kaitlyn Rich, and Tyson Rasor. Music by Imagined Nostalgia and Boxwood Orchestra. Illustrations by Tony Sterling and design by Heldáy de la Cruz. 

This podcast was made possible by our funders at the Builders Initiative; The Builders Ini­tia­tive invests in and col­lab­o­rates with nonprof­its, busi­ness­es, and oth­ers work­ing towards sus­tain­able solu­tions to soci­etal and envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges. Lastly, this podcast is a production from Ecotrust, where we work in partnership at the intersection of equity, economy, and environment. Learn more about Ecotrust at ecotrust.org.