We will always wonder who pulled the first
oyster out of the river, jimmied open the shell with a rock and had the
fortitude to slurp down the watery, gelatinous mollusk inside, The Kent County News reports.
Besides brave, he or she also must have
been quite the ancient equivalent of a salesperson for convincing others in the
tribe to sample oysters as well. There are still plenty of people around who
will not give these delicious specimens a chance. Oh well, all the more for us.
Our love of oysters — raw, fried, frittered, etc. — has us very excited for a growing breed of business in Kent County. Scott Budden, Kent County High School Class of 2003, is working on the launch of Orchard Point Oyster Co., an aquaculture operation to be located off Eastern Neck Island.
He plans to start at a site up the Chester
River near the mouth of Church Creek this May, before moving down toward
Eastern Neck Island next year. With the first crop, batch or bevy of oysters
expected this winter, we eagerly anticipate getting our hands on some of
Orchard Point's first bivalves.
Mr Budden ran into some issues in planning
his operation. Owners of a farm near the Church Creek site complained he would
interfere with their waterfowl hunting operations. Watermen raised concerns
that Mr Budden's business would inhibit crabbing on the Chester River.
Thankfully, through mediation, all parties came to a sensible agreement,
keeping Orchard Point in Kent County.
"Compromises were made all around, in
the interest of hunting, the oyster farm and commercial fishing," Mr Budden
said in an April 2 interview.
Aquaculture is not new. The state granted
leases for such operations back in the 1800s, according to the Department of
Natural Resources website. With renewed interest in the last decade, the DNR
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started to accept new aquaculture
applications in 2010, the website states.
Orchard Point, Barren Island Oysters,
Hooper's Island Oyster Aquaculture Co. and the nearly 70 other aquaculture
operations the DNR counted in Maryland add to the bounty of our local
waterways, while improving the water itself.
"(Aquaculture) is critical to the
environment and to the cultures that were grown around these oysters,"
said Johnny Shockley, founder of Hooper's Island Oyster Aquaculture, in an
interview earlier this year.
"It's essential that we re-establish
oysters for ecological and economic reasons."
Read more HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news
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