June 2022

*|MC:SUBJECT|*

If You Build It, They Will Come!

Bagging Cured Oyster Shell to Deploy into the Bay

On May 12th, the Wild Oyster Project organized a contingent of thirty volunteers from Scape Studio and ClifBar to wash, bag, weigh, and transport oyster shells we have collected and cured for many years. It was a beautiful day; the volunteers were engaged and enthusiastic, knowing they were part of an important endeavor to bring native oysters back to our Bay and to save a beloved park. In total, about 2,000 pounds of shell were utilized and the addition of this element to the reef balls will attract fish, birds, and marine life.

We placed the shells into biodegradable bags tied off with biodegradable zip ties both sourced from BESE who develop plastic alternatives designed for restoration projects. Wild Oysters is unwavering in our commitment to stop adding more plastic to the marine environment. Volunteers then weighed each bag and transported them to the staging area where 60 oyster reef balls (ORBs) made of ECOncrete are sited. Later this summer these ORBs, adorned with bagged shell, will be installed on the southern shore of Heron’s Head Park. This new oyster reef is part of the Heron’s Head Park Shoreline Resilience Project spearheaded by the Port of San Francisco and funded by Measure AA, the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, Proposition 68 and Propostion 1.

Why Heron’s Head Park?

The shoreline at Heron’s Head Park has been eroding for the past 20 years, and every year we don’t control it, tidal salt marsh is lost along the southern shoreline of the park. The Port is constructing a coarse material beach to dampen the erosive force of wind driven waves, create new habitat along the shoreline, and enable the wetlands at Heron’s Head Park to migrate with rising sea level. The Heron’s Head Park Shoreline Resilience Project incorporates living shoreline features, including intertidal oyster reef balls to provide habitat for oysters, fish, and marine invertebrates.

A few weeks later, we returned with a small group of volunteers to attach and label smaller monitoring bags to the ORBs.

The ORBs will be monitored over 10 years. Every year this small sample bag will be collected to gauge recruitment of Olympia oysters and then replaced with another.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am for Wild Oysters’ contribution to this project – from donating the cured oyster shells, to the conception, planning, recruitment, execution, and photo documentation of a very fun and productive day. There would not be oyster shell bag and fish hut enhancements to the oyster reef balls without the Wild Oyster Project. We look forward to working with the organization to celebrate the deployment of the reef balls this summer, to monitoring the success of the oyster reef and to keeping the community informed about this innovative Living Shoreline project.”
- Carol Bach, Project Director Heron’s Head Resiliency Project Lead for the Port of San Francisco

Billion Oyster Project's Second Annual Scyposium

We were honored to be a part of BOP's Scyposium and talk about our Oyster Base Camp program. The Scyposium showcases educators, community scientists, as well as college and graduate students working on harbor and estuary themed projects and campaigns. We were proud to represent community based oyster restoration for the West Coast.

The Scyposium started with a panel discussion on the critical importance of community science. A lot of great points were made about addressing the repository of knowledge that exists in between "hard science" and those who would not necessarily call themselves scientists, and the importance of community science creating opportunities for funding within the community. It raised questions about who is being served by the data collected in research and is that data serving impacted communities.

You can watch the whole Scyposium on the Billion Oyster Project's youtube channel. Click here to jump ahead to our presentation.

Farming in Bodega Bay and growing baby Olympias in a FLUPSY

Bodega Bay Oyster Company

A conversation with oyster farmer Whittaker Strain

Bodega Bay Oyster Company has been family owned and operated since 1985. Martin Strain and his children, Whittaker and Lindsey, farm 92 acres of pristine, plankton-rich waters in Tomales Bay and Bodega Bay. Their mission is to bring you sustainably farmed shellfish while maintaining their standing as responsible community members and active stewards of the marine environment.

Wild Oyster’s Director, Linda Hunter, sat down with one of our favorite oyster farmers, Whitt Strain, to talk about everything oyster.

LH: So great to talk with you again Whitt! We are so pleased to learn the farm, the store, and now even a restaurant have not only survived these tumultuous times but have thrived!

I know your father, Martin, has been a waterman for 30 years. What led you to follow in his footsteps and come back to the farm?

WS: It took me moving away to realize what I had here. I went to UC Santa Barbara and the university’s location on the water underscored my love for the water and the ocean. I learned to scuba and surf and the ocean was always right there in its stunning beauty. So, after graduating with a degree in philosophy, I came home to stay close to the water where I grew up.

LH: Yes, Santa Barbara is hard to beat if you love the ocean, though Tomales and Bodega Bays are pretty wonderful too! Explain how it is you are named Bodega Bay Oyster Company but your oysters are grown in Tomales Bay for the most part.

WS: Our farm is spread out – Bodega Bay, Tomales Bay and Valley Ford. My dad started Point Reyes Oyster Company in 1983. Our retail store and restaurant are located in Valley Ford, which is basically dairy country, 10 miles from the water but close to the two bays where we also work. We began working in Bodega Bay to grow oyster spat.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is not a lot of infrastructure surrounding Tomales Bay that can be used by oyster farmers. Things like electricity, water, and docks. So we began working in Bodega Bay - still a very functional fishing community - that provides the tools fishermen and oystermen need. We built a stationary FLUPSY (Floating Upweller System) to grow spat obtained from the Bodega Marine Lab that is also close to our operations. So the oysters make a journey from the Lab on the coast, to the bay in Bodega, to our farm in Tomales Bay.

We bought the retail space here in Valley Ford in 2010 and have been adding and enhancing the place since then. There’s the picnic area where you can shuck your own oysters or grill them. This area is outside and has tables and shade trees. We recently added a restaurant and bar called Bodega Cellars where you can enjoy oysters and wine pairings as well as other locally procured food and beer. Or you can always just buy some oysters to take home to shuck.

LH: It’s such an out of the way place, among the rolling hills of Northern California. Do people just see the beautiful sign with your Oystercatcher logo and pull over?

WS: We’re almost exactly ½ way between Petaluma and Bodega Bay so, yes, some people just find us here on their way to one of those destinations. But we also have a lot of dedicated clientele – people from the City, Marin, the East Bay, and even northern counties like Mendocino.

LH: We are just So excited that Bodega Bay Oyster Company is growing and harvesting our native Olympia oysters! Tell us how that came about and how the operation is going.

WS: It actually was an experiment and partnership with the Bodega Marine Lab. In collaboration with oyster farmers, the Lab developed standard operating procedures for native and non-native oyster culture, producing “spat” for commercial and restorative out-planting of underutilized oyster species like Olys. The Aquatic Resources Group developed new oyster hatchery practices and protocols with various oyster species. Early success with seed production and outplant survivorship has led to ongoing partnerships like the one between the Lab and Bodega Oyster Company.

We take very tiny oysters (spat) from the lab and grow them in Bodega Bay in a bayside flupsy. The flupsy keeps the oysters safe and well nourished by mimicking the effects of the upwelling in the ocean, washing cool water and nutrients over the spat. Once the Olys get large enough (about ¾ “), they are outbagged to our farm in Tomales Bay. There they continue to grow until they are ready for harvest. Because of the unique taste of the Olympia oyster with its metallic, smoky palette, we are seeing more wholesalers line up to purchase our Olys. We are now selling 15-20 bags per week.

LH: Thanks for the great conversation, Whitt. The Wild Oyster crew is planning to make it up to the farm this summer to enjoy locally grown Olys!