been isolated incidents of MSX — a 

 parasite that typically thrives in cooler 

 waters north of North Carolina. 



A combination of factors has forced 

 the closing of many oyster beds. Of 1.43 

 million acres of North Carolina salt water 

 suitable for shellfishing, more than 56,000 

 acres of shellfish-growing waters are 

 permanently closed, according to a DMF 

 report. This represents an increase of about 

 380 acres since 1998. 



Most normally open areas from 

 Carteret County southward also experience 

 temporary closures during excessive rains. 

 They are reopened for shellfishing once 

 water samplings indicate bacteria levels 

 are safe. 



Outside Gene and Lillie Oglesby's 

 Mill Creek home on the Newport River, 

 the state has closed a large man-made 

 oyster rock dubbed "Shell Road" because 

 of the large number of oyster shells. 



"I have eaten many an oyster from 

 Shell Road," says LiJlie Oglesby. "Now 

 the whole river is polluted from Newport 

 to Lawton Bay." 



Oglesby's daughter, Elaine 

 Crittenston, vividly remembers the day 

 when the state closed one of her dad's 

 prime oyster gardens. 



"My dad had tended the oyster garden 

 in the area that was closed," she says. "He 

 had nowhere to go to get clean oysters. I 

 remember seeing tears in my dad's eyes." 



Not too long after that, Gene Oglesby 



retired from oystering. 



"It got to the place where there was 

 nothing out there," he says. "You would 

 work all day and would have done good if 

 you caught a bushel." 



To provide more oysters, the state 

 initiated an Oyster Relay Program. Fishers 

 are paid to bring shellfish from polluted 

 waters back into clean waters. There the 

 oysters purify themselves before being 

 harvested the next season. Leaseholders 

 also are allowed to move these oysters to 

 their beds at no cost. 



From April to mid-May, the 

 Swartzenbergs and Rices load up their boat 

 with small cluster oysters from state- 

 managed beds in polluted waters. 



"We take up about 60 bushels of 

 clusters of oysters at a time and then relay 

 them to our leases," says Swartzenberg. 



With the decline of the oyster 

 business, shucking houses also vanished. 

 Today, there are no shucking houses 

 operating in Mill Creek. The last one 

 closed in 1985. The vacated building 

 "stands alone on the river as a reminder of 

 the ways things used to be," says Garry 

 Culpepper's mother, Johnise. "When I was 

 growing up, there were five shucking 

 houses in Mill Creek. My dad had one 

 house." 



She remembers when Hurricane 

 Hazel roared through Mill Creek on Oct. 

 15, 1954, and damaged the shucking 

 houses. 



"Many of the houses were hurt bad," 

 says Johnise Culpepper. "But my dad's 

 own house had minor damage. Others in 

 the community pitched in to fix his house. 

 Instead of nine people shucking oysters, 

 he had 20 workers because so many 

 people were out of work and needed the 

 money." 



Aquaculture is Wave 

 of Future 



To increase oyster production, some 

 fishers are turning to aquaculture. The 

 methods for culturing oysters vary — 

 from growing oysters in racks in the water 

 to new seeding methods. The traditional 

 method of oyster culture is the planting of 

 cultch material (shells, etc.) to provide a 

 clean, firm space for the attachment of 

 natural larvae. 



"The future of the oyster industry is 

 in mariculture," says North Carolina Sea 

 Grant mariculture specialist Skip Kemp. 

 "In order to harvest, you need to put seed 

 in the water. Havesting from the wild 

 relies on natural seed, which is limited." 



Sea Grant and Tipper Tie, Inc., a 

 metal clip manufacturing company in 

 Apex, developed an innovative method of 

 culturing oysters off the bottom with a 

 grow-out system that resembles a floating 

 ladder. Now a few oyster growers in the 

 state use this method to grow shellfish. 

 Swartzenberg was one of the first to 

 try this chub method and 

 received a state Fisheries 

 Resource Grant to 

 determine its economic 

 feasibility. 



He also uses racks 

 to grow oysters. In a 

 leased area of Stump 

 Sound, he has more than 

 800 cages strapped to 

 racks. Each cage holds 

 about a half bushel of 

 oysters. 



Eating salty, delectable 

 oysters is a tradition at the 

 Mill Creek Oyster Festival. 



