Weschler said the greatest portion of oyster seed sales so far have gone to private producers working bottom leased to them by the state. Seed oysters do their best attaching to shells and other bottom structure when water temps reach into the mid and upper 60s.Īfter the seed oysters attach themselves and begin growing, they should reach market size in about two years. With temperatures rising again, Weschler said demand for seed oysters will also begin increasing. ![]() Oyster larvae develop what is known as an eyespot which detects light and helps guide them to the bottom of the water column when they are ready to eventually attach themselves and grow into the bivalve creatures that most of us know.Īlthough the recent northeaster that hammered Delmarva’s coast cooled Chesapeake waters to below normal temperatures for this time of the year, that problem has now passed. Stephan Abel, prime mover behind the Ferry Cove operation, said the Ferry Cove hatchery has the capacity to produce two to three billion eyed larvae – seed oysters – per year. ‘I’d say we’ve produced about 100 million seed oysters at this point.” Weschler said oyster farmers Ferry Cove has sold its product to so far are very happy with the quality of the product. Weschler said this group of vessels contains about two million seed oysters. The largest larvae, at the left, are just about ready to be deployed for planting on leasehold oyster-farming bottom and public oystering bars. Water quality and food quality are critical for the operation’s success. The larvae are force-fed algae piped into the containers from another area of the facility where the microscopic plants are grown in large tanks in a computer-monitored and automated process. We’re pretty ecstatic with how it’s all functioning.”įerry Cove Oyster Hatchery Manager Steven Weschler stands alongside containers of variously sized, developing oyster larvae, also known as spat and juvenile oysters. So far we have no issues cross fingers and knock on wood. “Now we’re scaling up even further, increasing production, monitoring and adapting as we go along. “We’re producing good quality larvae and have already seeded some leaseholds and grounds,” said hatchery manager Steven Weschler this week. ![]() Michaels and Tilghman Island moved into full production mode this spring after completion of construction at the end of 2021. The high-tech, multi-million dollar facility located on Route 33 between St. ![]() Golding is a biology and environmental sciences graduate of Salisbury University.įive years after conception, the privately owned Ferry Cove Oyster Hatchery is now producing millions of seed oysters for Maryland’s oyster industry. One spawning cycle in this rack can produce hundreds of millions of eggs. When visual checks identify spawning, eggs and sperm are collected and moved to other tanks for fertilization, algae feeding, and gradual development toward seed-sized oysters. Warming water temperature triggers spawning. Alex Golding, hatchery technician at the Ferry Cove facility, monitors brood-stock oysters ready to spawn in a rack of individual tanks filled with circulating, filtered bay water.
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