Our farming methods give much needed help back to the Chesapeake Bay environment. In the past, there were enough oysters to filter all 19 trillion gallons of water in the Bay every few days. One oyster can filter about 50 gallons of water per day, so it takes at least 380 billion oysters to accomplish all that filtration. Due to over-harvesting and disease, much of the natural oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay has been destroyed. Without this filtration there is more algae and sediment which leads to less sunlight in the water, a key ingredient to a healthy Bay. Oysters are just one link in the chain. Less sunlight equals less grass beds which means less habitat for young crabs and fish. Now that the natural oyster population has dramatically decreased, what’s filtering the water?

Our 10 million-plus oysters are filtering approximately 525 million gallons of water daily during the growing season. We aren’t growing 380 billion oysters yet, but as we help other independent growers establish thriving farms, we expect to see the number of oysters in the Bay rise exponentially.

Farmed oysters take the harvesting pressure off the natural populations so they can reproduce and replenish old oyster beds. Of our 10 million oysters, many are planted on oyster grounds for reef restoration and reproduction in the wild. Each female oyster, depending on size, has the capability of spawning 25-85 million offspring. Of course, not all of those oysters make it to maturity. But if only 2% of the offspring survive to maturity from the 2% that actually set, that’s potentially over 500 million young disease resistant oysters we release into the wild annually.

When consumers support the farmed Bay oyster by purchasing them directly or requesting them in restaurants, they are supporting the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. What are you waiting for?

Order Some Oysters!