Marine 



Encouraging Oyster Culture 



Advice 



Extending Knowledge to the Coastal Community 



As he drives past a mountain of wood 

 chips at the Morehead City poit, Skip 

 Kemp's eyes brighten for a moment. 



"Hey. Oysters like to settle on wood. 

 If I could use wood chips for cultch 

 material. . ." 



He fishes a notebook from his hip 

 pocket and writes, steadying the steering 

 wheel with his other hand. 



"If I don't write it down, I'll forget it," 

 he says, laughing. "I must be getting old." 



Ideas are a major pan of Kemp's job. 

 As a Sea Grant Marine Advisory Seivice 

 agent, he's expected to help others come 

 up with better ways to use coastal 

 resources. 



Recently, he assembled his years of 

 practical and applied research into a 

 manual on how to raise hard clams on 

 leased estuarine bottom. 



The manual, published by Sea Grant, 

 is going like hotcakes. 



These days, Kemp is concentrating on 

 growing more and better oysters on that 

 same estuarine lease. 



"We've pretty much got clams down 

 pat," he says. "Now, we want to grow 

 more oysters." 



He pulls into the driveway at Charlie 

 G. Brown's home near Harker's Island. 



Brown walks with Kemp to the 

 shallow sound bottom behind the house. 

 The tide is low, and several clam and oys- 

 ter beds are exposed to the morning sun. 



He calls the Brown "farm" an ideal 

 situation. "The water is right; the bottom is 

 sandy. It's just that, until now, there was 

 nothing for the oyster spat to settle on. 

 Since we laid out this cultch material, this 

 place will be productive for oysters." 



He turns over a few cultch shells. 

 Oysters are forming in clusters on some of 

 them. The method seems to be working. 



"We've got a long way to go to in 

 oyster culture," Kemp says. "But we keep 

 working on it." 



Here are a few of Kemp's tips on how 

 you can raise oysters — for your own use 

 or for sale — on leased estuarine bottom. 



• Check the area to see if there are 

 oysters already there. If there are a few, 

 chances are the site will be good for oyster 

 culture. Contact the N.C. Division of 

 Marine Fisheries, and tell them of your 

 intentions. They'll tell you if your site is 

 closed because of pollution or disease. 

 They'll also tell you if salinity levels are 

 high enough for oysters. 



• DMF will check your site for 

 shellfish culture. If it's a natural shellfish 

 bed containing 10 or more bushels per 

 acre, they won't grant you a lease. 

 Otherwise, they'll recommend that you 

 apply for a lease. The non-refundable 

 application fee is $100, and it could take 

 about six to eight months for approval. If 

 approved, the lease fee is $5 per acre per 

 year, with renewal required every 10 years. 



• When you have your lease, plant 

 cultch material — shells or marl to which 

 small oysters can attach. Oyster shells are 

 best for cultch. Put the cultch out in 



summer when oysters are spawning. 

 Contact DMF for facts on relaying oysters 

 from polluted areas. 



• Monitor and manage your lease. 

 "You can't just leave them out there 

 without putting some work into the lease," 

 Kemp says. Keep the cultch clean and free 

 of silt and other material. 



• Harvest your oysters in two to three 

 years. "It's not a fast process by any 

 means, and the grower should be patient," 

 Kemp says. Oysters will grow faster if they 

 are growing off the bottom, but that 

 requires a water column lease, which is 

 $500 per acre per year. 



• Sell your oysters to individuals or to 

 restaurants if you have small amounts, or 

 to seafood dealers if you have larger 

 quantities. Dealers pay less. Do a little 

 legwork, and find out when prices are 

 higher. Leaseholders can sell when the 

 season for natural harvest is closed, and 

 they can also sell oysters smaller than the 

 3-inch size limit for natural oysters. 



If you're interested in oyster culture, 

 contact Kemp at his office in Atlantic 

 Beach. His number is 919/247-4007, # 



C.R. Edgerton 



16 JULY/AUGUST 1991 



