Young and dumb

[goosefish]

This morning we sold about 9,000 oysters, which was fine: toasty warm shop, where we pack our orders. But then we had to go clear the farm of ice. Just over 2 acres. We brought two boats out and started breaking. It took about three hours to clear the ice out. We have to keep the farm clear so that we can work it, and more importantly so we can sell. If we can't sell then we're in trouble and so to avoid this we spend everyday breaking ice, seven days a week until the weather warms. The ice breaking tools on the hulls and engines, and the frosty temperatures keeps our bodies nice and cold.
The one good thing about frozen weather is that the farms to our north get really socked in, to the point of having to shut down. And when these farms shut down, somehow our orders go up--supply and demand And so we break and we bitch about it, but the winter sales for us are the biggest of the year, our bread and butter............................................ .But,

It's hard fighting mother nature, she's got a way of doing things.

[Bawana]

Duh--I thought Oysters were from down south but I never asked anyone.My Sister lived in Beauford SC on Factory creek just off the Intercoastal and so named because if an old Oyster packing plant that is long gone.I*ve seen beds of them all over down there but dont think they could eat them. They were all over the flats---- Do you do this around here.Northeast??Are you above NJ.I was never a fan of them steamed smoked or raw but seeing this makes me curious as to how far north they are.

[goosefish]

Bawana. All the farms on the east coast are growing the same kind of oyster: The eastern oyster as it is know. Many farms play around with other species but the eastern is the one that is native and therefore does the best. The eastern oyster has a large range, going from Texas right on up to the Canandian Maritimes.
The farm that I am on is in Rhode Island, on a south shore saltpond. THe cape is know for farmed oysters as is Maine, Novia Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The farming in the northeast is done differently than down south--it all depends on how much bottom the state or province will lease to the farmer.
We lease bottom from the state of Rhode Island and herein is where the problems arise--how can something that was once a private resource (the sea) be suddenly private?
I could ramble on about this, and have already gone beyond your original question.
Northern oysters are much tastier than southern oysters because the waters are colder and more rich in plankton................you should try one of ours, they are the best.

An oyster is an oyster, but it's the waters that they are grown in that gives them their taste.

[Backbeach Jake]

Yikes, I thought my job socked. But I know yours tastes better. Your efforts are appreciated>

[Nebe]

Goosefish... its funny how our jobs are polar oposites.. You are freezing your butt off now, but in my shop its a nice toasty 82°... but in the summer, the tables are turned as I boil to death in a room thats hovering around 120° and your working on your tan in paradise...

Next august I'll be grumpin here all month....

[goosefish]

I like where you work Eben, sorry I was in-and-out today, but we had ice to break.

As for July and August, and this might seem like a strange thing to say when the temperature outside is cold as cold can be, but these two summer months can drive me mad--the pond is overrun with small craft, the sun beats down, the sea breeze never comes soon enough, those still windless mornings when the gnats bite like an army...........................................Hav e I lost my mind it's bloody zero degrees outside

[fishweewee]

WORK SUCKS

[goosefish]

FWW--again this may sound strange; but I would go out of my mind if I didn't work.

I like the bass need some kind of structure.

[fishweewee]

Okay, maybe YOUR work don't suck.

But mine DOES

[Raven]

to happiness, is to do exactly what you love to do.....
then its not work but playing and you get paid....
might not pay as well ,but your much happier

on oysters..... isn't it possible to also grow algae/plankton ?

[goosefish]

Raven--yes. The put giant cylinders near a source of sunlight, and once the algae has grown onto the sides, they start a diatom culture. The diatoms feed on the algae. Once they have enough diatoms--which are a super abundent plankton--they feed the diatoms to whatever they are trying to grow: baby fluke, baby cod, oysters, clams, etc.

We don't have to feed our oysters, luckly. They eat what nature gives them.

[goosefish]

This is incorrect. My URI brain has once again failed me. Those learnings I had, grow fainter and fainter with each passing winter.

Diatoms are a kind of phytoplankton--they are the ones that are grown in the sunlight tubes. The diatoms are then fed to a zooplankton called rotifers; and the rotifers are fed to the.........................juvenile whatevers.

[BigBo]

I don't know about you, but rotifers give me gas.

[beachwalker]

Goose when were you at Rhody ?

me 88-91

[goosefish]

Beachwalker 1990--1997, fisheries science: took me a long time to get the degree.
Organic chemistry and general chemistry I and II really slowed me down. I helped the bell curve in those classes

[beachwalker]

Awesome Goose,

me, Poly sci. Started at Uconn in 82 and stopped in 84. Enrolled part time at URI in 88 and finished in 91.

Sailed boats a lot. Was one of the crew that won the World College champs in France in 90.

What a hoot that was.

Trophy presentation was in Paris at the city hall (L'Hotel de Ville). Chirac was the mayor at the time and handed us the trophy and shook all of our hands.

Went to Morrisons grave, scored. Got blasted on French wine.

what a gas.....

First time I've reminiced about that for a while

[RIROCKHOUND]

Still there, 1997-Present....
Rhode Island born and Rhode Island bred...
and when I die...
Screw the song, I'll just be dead!

[beachwalker]

Go Go Rhode Island..........

your right Rock. blah, blah, blah........

[RIROCKHOUND]

UR High...

Playboy's article on party schools last year;
(Paraphrased)
"URI isnt in the list of the top party schools because you cant put profesionals against a bunch of amatuers"

There wasnt much we didnt see or drink in my early years here, now as an older and not much wiser grad student, we have out grown that
Yeah Right!!

Go Rhode Island
U R I


BW... isnt it sad how long that stupid song stays with you....

[beachwalker]

ugh, it still haunts me.

like an old, embarrassing girl

[Nebe]

Originally posted by beachwalker
Sailed boats a lot. Was one of the crew that won the World College champs in France in 90.

What a hoot that was.

Hey good for you! back in '90 I placed #1 in newengland and 8th in the nationals for USYRU singlehanded junior division in Lasers...(smythe cup)

[beachwalker]

awesome !

Did you go to Rhody or college sail ?

Still sail a Laser once in a while but mostly windsurf and fish now.

The latest breed of Laser gods are friggin unreal. I would be SOOO far behind if it was a race of any length.

word up

[Bawana]

How do you tell the local Oysters from the southern ones .do them mark them at store??? what do you do with the shells?I know down south they put them into the asphalt and maybe the cement on roads and I even saw a real old building that the walls were all shells In Beaufort SC.Out side it didnt look like it but they had a glass cover over open section of wall to show it on the inside.They also recomend putting the shells back into water for new ones to attach to on beds so do you just dump the shells back in or do they also have a commercial value????

[goosefish]

We grow our oysters in big cages that we make out of lobster pot wire. The cages are 7' long, 4' high by 2' wide--their big and heavy. We use hydraulic cranes to lift the cages off the bottom. Inside the cages are shelves. The oysters are in fancy plastic bags in the shelves. The lease is 2.5 acres, and on the lease we have 550 of these cages. IN the spring of every year we get about 2 million seed oysters. Their tiny things, a million in the plam of your hand. We grow oysters the hard way and the expensive way--labor intensive; but when we sell to New York, Boston, we get a high price. The reason we spend so much time doing this is that our oysters tend to be round-- perfect for the raw bar trade. We don't let them attach to anything so they grow round, instead of all funny looking.

Down south most of the farms are much bigger, and they harvest them by towing dredges across the oyster beds. That's why they toss the shells back over. The word is cultch, the baby oysters called spat spend their first few weeks swimming around looking for a suitable spot to anchor on, thus attaching and spending the rest of their lives totally sedentary. They settle on the cultch.
Its pretty cool that at first oysters swim, tiny larval things that go off looking for a home. They are attracted to the lime that dissolves from the cultch, so, generally, they settle there.

Anyway we don't really see shells because we ship whole oyster for the half-shell market. Oyster that don't grow fast enough we sort out and then dump on the lease. We dive on these with tanks, make a little money. We don't have enough space, so if one oysters is growing slower than the rest, that oyster is dumped overboard where we give it all the time it wants to grow.

From spat oyster to market oyster--18 months of growing time, that is really fast, and that is how we make money. Get in, get out, don't linger.

If you need shells I can get them for you. A pretty mosaic on your shower wall

[Nebe]

Originally posted by beachwalker
awesome !

Did you go to Rhody or college sail ?

Still sail a Laser once in a while but mostly windsurf and fish now.

The latest breed of Laser gods are friggin unreal. I would be SOOO far behind if it was a race of any length.

word up

Naw.. didnt do the college sailing thing... I went to college at RIT in Rochester NY..brrrrrrr.
Most of my competitive sailing was done in Highschool. I also placed 1st for public schools in the highschool nationals in 1992:.....The smyth Cup was a summer yacht club thing..
I agree the new laser guys are top notch.. I dont really follow whats going on these days in the circuit, but alot of the guys that I used to frostbite with have gone big time... If I raced a laser now I'd get smoked.......

[beachwalker]

That's awesome Eben !

The high school nationals is a top regatta.

Way back when I was in school we finished 5th at the New Englands. Top three went. Oh well.

The Johnstones of J-24 fame started my high school sailing team (Amity - Ct. I don't think they have a sailing team anymore) in 1976 and promptly went on to win the Mallory trophy that year. The first public school ever to win the trophy. We used to practice and host home matches at the Yale facility in Branford.

What high school did you go to ?

[Nebe]

The Mallory...Yes I remember that one. I went to Rogers High in Newport. I had a love hate relationship with the team because we didnt have a lot of good kids to make up a good team racing team, but I seemed to do o.k. in the lasers by myself. YEp the Johnstones are a top notch family.. I've been out sailing with 2 johnstones.. Its been so long I forgot there names.. one owned a J-80 and I crewed for him in th worlds, and the otherone started the International 14 class and would go tooling around the bay with him(pete i think)

[beachwalker]

Boy Eben,

did we ever hijack this thread. Thank goodness Goose goes to URI !

[beachwalker]

Jeff, Pete, Jim, Drake, Stuart, Helen blah blah blah

Lot's of em



Excellent to shoot the shiite with you about racing. As you well know 1 person doesn't make a good match racing team but single handing and you are fine.

I guess a ton of people still frostbite in Newport on the weekends.

I live on Nantucket and they have had a team for about 6 years now. They are doing pretty well. GREAT place to sail !

Later

LOTR opens at the local theater tonight. Haven't sean it yet. Totally psyched !

[Nebe]

Yeah that was fun thinking back to the good old days My family still ownes a 2-ton but we never race it... if it were up to me I'd sell it and get a mako for fishing...

enjoy LOTR... and before you go, go eat some oysters, hopefully goosefish grew them there... the threads back on track: