By Sarah Friday Peters 



ORKING ON 

 THE WATER. 



The boat motor hums in a quiet 

 monotone as oysterman Raymond 

 Graham skims across Newport River 

 in his handcrafted skiff. 



The water ripples as he makes his 

 way to a familiar oyster bed about a 

 half-mile from his fishing shack on 

 the shore. 



It was a trip the Mill Creek fisher- 

 man had made almost every day of 

 his life. The water is in his blood, 

 you could say. 



Five generations of Grahams have 

 worked the Newport River waters. 

 The first dollar Raymond ever made 

 came from culling oysters for 5 cents 

 a bushel. 



At 58, Graham still makes his dol- 

 lars from shellfish — fishing and dis- 

 tributing oysters and clams all over 

 the country. 



He is one of more than 8,000 com- 

 merical shellfishermen in North 

 Carolina, and one of the reasons 

 oysters end up on our plates. 



This December day, Graham is 

 dressed in a blue flannel shirt, jeans, 

 black rubber boots and a navy blue 

 baseball cap depicting a boat and 

 bearing the words "Becky L. 

 Smith." A chaw of tobacco rests in 

 his cheek. 



His hands and his eyes show oys- 

 tering is hard work. To an outsider, 

 it's both science and art. 



A Newport River oysterman pulls 

 in the oysters while his wife culls 



them. 



Like farmers, oystermen work 

 hand-in-hand with an unpredictable 

 Mother Nature. It takes skill and luck 

 to turn a profit. 



In North Carolina, oystermen pick, 

 tong or dredge for "coons" and 

 "rocks." They call smaller oysters 

 coons because the shell is shaped 

 like a raccoon footprint. "Rocks" are 

 bigger and thicker. Both can be 

 found along the coast in bays, rivers, 

 inlets and sounds. 



"You take an oyster," says old-time 

 oysterman David Oglesby of Mill 

 Creek. "He doesn't want a real salt 

 water or a real fresh water. He wants 

 a brackish water.' ' 



Oysters survive best in water with 

 low to moderate salinity. They spawn 

 during warm weather, sending mil- 

 lions of larvae floating through the 

 water. The young oysters, or spat, ce- 

 ment themselves permanently to one 

 place to grow. Oyster shells work 

 best for a setting, Graham says, but 



other shells, tires and cans work just 

 as well. 



If larvae land on mud or shifting 

 sand, they quickly die, says David 

 Taylor, central district manager for 

 the Division of Marine Fisheries. For 

 this reason, the state plants shells to 

 aid natural oyster production. 



Weather, fungi, sponges, barnacles 

 and disease impede setting, too, 

 Taylor says. Usually a low percentage 

 of young oysters make it to the 

 marketable size of 3 inches. 



It takes about 18 months to two 

 years to get a 3-inch oyster out of the 

 Newport River, Graham says. Oysters 

 grow fastest in the winter. 



The traditional, and legal, har- 

 vesting season runs from Oct. 15 to 

 April 1 for shellfishermen working 

 public bottomland. Those with pri- 

 vately leased bottomland can fish 

 year-round. 



Graham has about 61 acres of 



Continued on next page. 



Photo by Nancy Davis 



