Shellfish Gardeners

I did not want to let another spat collection opportunity go by. The key objective of SGNC is to help clean water by increasing the oyster population. We can do that in open or closed waters, using on-bottom or UDOC.

Many of our members live in areas without oysters and therefore without spat. One way to begin the oyster repopulation process is by transferring spat from high concentration area. We can partner to do this. Below are my ideas for a SPAT collection program. In order to get some results this year we need:

The best results I’ve had collecting spats has been by using regular oyster cages. For flotation, I use two 16" X 32 “ ½ inch building construction foam (the blue stuff, not the white) taped together with electrical tape. I place a layer of clean oyster shells in the cage and secure it under the pier as I do a cage with oysters. I put the cage in the water a few days before the full moon in June. Results have not been consistent from year to year. At times, I've gotten more barnacles then spats. However, since the cages produced better results then spats bags, if I were to use bags again, I would suspend them off the bottom. This year, the moon will be full June 1. Last year it was June 11. For reasons unknown to me, my spats collection in 2006 was phenomenal. I attach 5 pictures, one showing my pier and secured cages, two others, showing spats collected last year. The ½ inch chisel gives some idea of scale. One picture was taken July 9, the other August 18, 2006. Note the growth in the size of the spats. I use the chisel to remove the spats from the oyster before I eat them. The survival rate is probably over 50% and it gets better as the spats get bigger. The survivors go into cages. Oh yes, spats will attach to your single oysters and turn them into trees if you let them grow there. The remaining pictures taken in April of this year show oysters that were supplied by the club in early 2006. These 6 oysters were micro waved for 3 minutes at the lowest power setting (50%). This results in partially opened oysters that are nicely shirred, some consistency on the outside but still juicy with a nicely balanced sweetness and saltiness. It's a lot of work but you know they didn't come out of a jar. I have a few free areas under my pier and boathouse if somebody wants to put out some spats collection cages or bags. I don’t guaranty results because the same technique has yielded different results. You are welcome to try.

Call me at 354-5989. I live in the middle of the island near MM 13.

Phil Gagnon

Microwaved_oysters_April_07.jpg (67581 bytes)

Shirred_oyster,_April_07.jpg (50427 bytes)

As I mentioned before, we here at the Aquarium are interested in being a SSM. If we are as lucky as Phil has been (he's just a few miles from us) we should get lots of spat. We are interested in raising some of them and also in providing to others. This is our (my) FIRST TIME doing it so no experience here, BUT we are willing and enthusiastic to learn. We plan on putting out several collectors of a couple different types. I will be coordinating that with the experts early next week and then email you all back to let you know what we're doing. John, if you and the others want, I (Pat) would be happy to try to track this effort among the group by email. Being new, I am still learning the different locations but this would be a GREAT way for me to learn. If someone else more knowledgeable is better to coordinate it this year, that's great too. Let me know what you think. In the meantime, I'll email you back next week with our plan to get some feedback from everyone.

Thanks for the interesting photos. Glad to hear it's working out for you. I think given our individual circumstances, we all develop our own techniques. Last summer, I tried my own approach to spat collection by using 4 tomato plant cages, lined with chicken wire, including a bottom. I stuck them in the water around my brood stock, and filled each with about a half bushel of shell. They were quickly peppered with thousands of spat in about a week. It was accidentally perfect timing. Now I have more spat than I ever imagined. I want to construct a reef nearby, but I have problems with sedimentation, algae and wave action. Marc Turano from Sea Grant, and I are putting our heads together to take this to the next level. Last week I bought 8 more tomato cages to construct new spat collectors. I'll send some pictures when I get them up and running. By the way, I have no dock....only shoreline on eastern Pamlico Sound. The water is generally about 2 to 3 feet deep.

I started chiseling spats off in the fall because some of the cages were bulging with all these spats growing. I initially put all 1000 purchased oysters in two cages. I also had a few cages with shells collecting spats.

I had never experienced so much spats so we, ( my wife helps...and eats her share of oysters too), had to improvise. We picked out the bigger oysters and put that in cages. Then we took all the small stuff (lots of barnacles) and put that in regular cages. I shook the cages and whatever came out we decided to put that on a reef that we created. We ended up with 11 cages. This past weekend we pulled a lot of ready to eat oysters from 4 of these cages and many 1 to 2 inch single oysters. They were separated and put back in cages.

The reef is a work in progress. It silted over during the winter and is covered with some vegetation. Much of the small stuff did not survive but I tried. There are many survivors and possibly, it is a foundation for this reef to continue to grow.

	Shellfish Gardeners
	of North Carolina