I'm up in the Bouctouche Bay area of New Brunswick, and I couldn't be happier. The whole region is ridiculously bucolic, and the weather is absolutely fine. I'm on the road, about to meet new people, renew an old acquaintance, and have some sort of adventure in the aquaculture world. Yeah, life is good.
The day starts with a little driving tour around Bouctouche, going nowhere in particular, just getting the lay of the land and trying not to get in an accident as I look one way and then the other. Yes, I had another Tim Horton's coffee, and maybe even two.
Just past the bridge that had wooden decking still on it (there's a throwback!) I come across a little green street sign: "Avenue des Huitres." I have to stop. Down the short road is a shop, and in the shop are three or four guys working on shellfish bags. The owner was not there, but apparently he is a former agricultural biologist, who has started an oyster farm, and who has been in business for a while now, so let's hear it for second and third acts in life.
***When you see a road named 'Avenue Des Huitres,' and you are somebody interested in oysters, you take it.
Next, one brief new meeting into the day, I'm headed up the road, to my scheduled meeting. On the way though, the sun is still shining, and Bouctouche Bay stretches right out along the road and I can see the 11-km-long Bouctouche Dune (mind you, most of Canada's shoreline in this region is much more accessible and viewable than in Maine, a welcome turn of events) and there is a group of farms in the nearshore, and I pull up into a parking lot next to a guy who obviously works there, and I say hello, and he says hello back, and pretty soon we're talking oysters.
My new acquaintance started an oyster farm in the early 90's and now works with his son, who operates the business. He has several hundred OysterGro cages (more on that below), and is planning expansion, noting that new space is a little difficult to get. He uses OysterGro primarily because it works well against oyster overset, which, as it turns out, is a huge problem locally. He says the OG system is expensive, but also that it does grow a nice oyster, and also that his are the best. He sells at 2.5" and 3" generally, and it takes about 3 years to reach 3". Said he gets about 28 cents for the 2.5" and about 38 cents for the 3". Above that is the Commercial grade, but there is not much call for them.
In case you ever doubted that farmers take real and deep pride in their work and the products they grow, talk to an oyster grower: all will tell you that they grow the best one, an aspect I love about this industry.
That done, and two conversations into this new morning, I continued on my way to Bouctouche Bay Industries, to meet with Rheal Savoie, whom I'd met before a couple of times, and who was the main reason I'd come this way.
Rheal is an affable businessman, and like so many people successful in the business world, seems to handle the constant concerns, obstacles and decisionmaking with ease and a certain joie de vivre - this guy really likes what he does. He spent many years working in government, but had an itch to strike out on his own, and he's still hard at it.
Rheal has been working to supply the aquaculture and fishing industry for some years; floats, traps, wire, etc. However, it's the Oyster-Gro system that seems to have put him on the aquaculture map down here in the states as of late. The system (www.oystergro.com) uses a wire cage with robust plastic floats as a way to get around excessive fouling and heavy winter ice, while giving the oysters access to warm surface temperatures, good food availability, and an easy approach to maintenance. Whether it works for oyster growers down here is unknown, but that's part of the process, and there are folks trying it out in Maine and elsewhere.
** An oyster farm that uses Oyster Gro units, in operation. The paired buoys are part of one unit, in the submerged position - the cages (background) are in the exposed position. Two workers stand in a basket hung from the boat; they are half in the water, making it easier to flip the cages, giving them a shake to even out the oysters.
Rheal took me through his factory, where he manufactures styrofoam floats (very cool to watch!), puts together the wire and shellfish bag components for OysterGro, and then to another part of the plant where they do injection molding for various plastic items.
Following that, we went to a farm owned by Armand King (he's on the OG video on Rheal's web site) and out to the farms in Bouctouche Bay. We looked at farms with several hundred OG systems, and Armand's farm has 8 million oysters in various stages of growth.
***The man himself. Rheal Savoie and one of his OysterGro cages, Bouctouche Bay, NB, Canada.
All production in the region starts with spat collection, mostly on 'chinese hats' or plastic drain tile. The mixture to cover the collectors is one part sand, one part cement, one part lime, mixed with water to a thin consistency. We also tried a couple of oysters at Armand's; they had just spawned so they were kind of thin, but still had a nice brine taste and excellent shape.
Other notes:
Putting a smaller oyster on the market makes sense up here because of the long growth cycle, but also they think that smaller oysters, still with a decent cup, make it easier for new oyster consumers to get started, and not so difficult as trying out a really big oyster. So, it cuts their production time and serves as a market development strategy. Oyster growing season starts in April or May, as soon as ice is out - the oysters start to grow, then put on about 75% of their growth before June. Then, they start to ripen for spawning, and that takes out some of the potential shell growth. Growers up here have also learned to work their oysters (i.e. grading) in the water during the early spring, so as not to knock off the new, paper-thin shell. This, as opposed to using a tumble-type grader.
Some fishermen have become aquaculturists, but the aq industry in the region is still maturing. The OysterGro seems to be helping, in terms of profitability; oyster tables don't work because of the overset, floating bags didn't work well enough, and bottom seeding is next to impossible because of the long growth cycle, like 7 years. So, even though the industry has been around for several years, this system seems to have made a difference, and there are thousands of cages in use in the region. Meantime, though there are some fishermen who have become growers, it's not enough success yet to have really driven a lot of guys into this industry.
As for competition for space between fishermen and shellfish growers: There is little other use of the coastal waters. No inshore lobstering, no dragging for scallops or urchins, or clam digging, and there are relatively few houses in the area. So, they have much less competition for space than in Maine - makes it somewhat easier for a grower to find lease area. Water temps reach 23 or 24 deg C, maybe a little warmer, so perhaps slightly higher than in ME.
Lastly, a reminder that this region makes a great getaway place, whether you are packing the family into the car for a vacation, or you want to do some directed agro-tourism, or you just want to put your feet into seawater that doesn't freeze your skin off. While I suspect that winters put the most hardy to the test up here, summer sure feels good.
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