Oysters On the Big Dock

Boat/US Magazine, Jan, 2002 by Ryck Lydecker

For Jim Wesson, life is one big oyster garden. Wesson, you see, is one of the people in charge of restoring oysters in Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay, now down to about 1% of their abundance 40 years ago.

The good news is that the state is committed to increasing oyster stocks 10-fold by the year 2010. The bad news is that growing oysters as a business isn't very profitable so most culturing is done by waterfront homeowners -- "oyster gardeners" -- who grow their own for personal consumption or as a hobby.

But suitable waterfront land for the large-scale operation needed to furnish these eager oyster gardeners with seed stock, much less supply open water planting efforts, just isn't available, says Wesson who heads restoration for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

What about plugging oyster aquaculture into an existing business, one that has waterfront facilities and a labor pool? That's what marina owner Dan Bacot, Jr. thought but he had his own problems to solve first. Bacot needed to grow his 325-slip York River Yacht Haven to accommodate increasing numbers of transient boats visiting Virginia's "historic triangle." With Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown National Battlefield and Jamestown Settlement all within 15 miles, his marina had become the ideal destination for cruising boaters -- when he had dock space available.

"We accommodate about 800 transients a year but every season we turn away customers," Bacot reports. "Our permanent slipholders notify us when they go cruising so we can put transients in their place. We raft up our brokerage boats at another location so that we can squeeze visitors in, but we still run out of room. I turned away 180 transients last season."

Bacot says increasing boat size further stresses the marina's fixed pier system with its short docks and narrow slips. But then he attended a Virginia Sea Grant workshop and learned about the Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) program, designed specifically to provide facilities for transient boaters.

In partnership with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and others, Bacot put together a grant-winning project that will not only expand his transient dock space, it will grow over a half-million oysters a year. Perhaps even more important, the marina will be an environmental asset as the bivalves siphon excess nutrients and help improve water quality. A mature oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day.

"When we're done, we'll be growing two crops of oysters under our docks every season while we grow our customer base of transient boaters," Bacot says.

Once fully operational, Bacot will supply home gardeners with disease-resistant seed oysters and also donate a portion of his production for open water restocking.

"The BIG grant allowed York River Yacht Haven to offset enough of the dock renovation costs so that they could afford to take on the marginal oyster growing operation," says Tom Murray, Virginia Sea Grant marine business specialist. "Marina staff will be cross-trained to maintain the equipment and ultimately Yacht Haven will have to add staff. So not only will the project bring more spending to Gloucester County, it will create new jobs."

"This is exactly what the BIG program was designed to do and the addition of oyster aquaculture makes the marina an environmental asset as well," says BoatU.S. Government Affairs Director Michael G. Sciulla who led the effort to push the BIG program through Congress three years ago.

The key to intensive oyster culture in a marina environment is the floating upweller system -- "Flupsie" -- developed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Shellfish aquaculture requires a continuous flow of nutrient rich seawater and the Flupsie augments tidal flow by pumping water through a series of 25-gallon growing barrels, essentially "force-feeding" the oysters.

At York River Yacht Haven, a Flupsie will be built into the new floating docks. Each Flupsie has eight removable growing barrels with an electric water pump and manifold. It is suspended beneath the middle of the deck so as not to interfere with boats using the dock.

Bacot wants to use his facility to educate the boating public about oyster aquaculture as a way to strengthen boaters' stewardship for the marine environment.

"This is really unusual," Bacot says. "We add slips and the creek is better for it. Sure, we'll expand the marina and we'll sell some oysters but if boaters can see this project and feel that they are part of a positive impact on the Chesapeake Bay, then that's the real payoff."

For more information on the Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) program, visit BoatUS.com/gov.