Determining Optimal Tumbling Schedule to Shape Petite Oysters in Highly Productive Waters and Access New Markets

Commodities

• Animals: shellfish

Practices

• Animal Production: aquaculture
• Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns

As new oyster farms are started each year the market competition
increases. On Martha’s Vineyard, a dozen oyster farms have been
operating successfully in Katama Bay for nearly 30 years, where
the salinty is moderately high, rich in phytoplankton and has
favorable temperatures. Farms in Katama Bay achieve market size
of 3”+ in 18-24 months. Recently, many consumers prefer “petite”
oysters, or one that is 2.5-3”. Growers in Katama struggle to
produce a well-cupped, petite oyster because the fast growing
conditions. The inability to produce a specific product creates
instability in some of the farms, as other growing areas are able
to produce quality petites. In order to maintain competitiveness,
farms in Katama Bay and other highly productive growing areas
will need to adapt and create new methods for different results.

We propose a series of experiments to control the size and shape
of the oyster through handling and tumbling. It is
well-established that tumbling oysters encourages the oyster to
grow deeper and wider, instead of longer. Currently, the custom
of most Katama Bay farms is to tumble the oysters just once
before market, to round off the sharp growing edge. Additional
tumbling sessions will cost labor and equipment time, and there
for determining the optimal input needed for the desired output,
is critical to the sustainability of the businesses. With the
help of Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group scientific staff, we
will compare the cost of increased handling to the benefit of
improved shape, size and meat quality. 

The objective of this project is to find the optimal tumbling
schedule to achieve well-shaped, petite oysters. The amount of
labor and equipment time will be weighed against size, shape and
meat quality improvements, across treatments and compared to
controls.