Will that stunt the oyster's growth?
Nov. 12th, 2009 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerThe human interest piece in yesterday's noon public TV was about oyster farming. I have to admit, I've never thought much about it. Turns out that oyster farmers worry about water quality, much as dirt farmers get concerned about the soil. And then there are those oysters smoking...
Yesterday's Furosato (hometown) piece at lunch on TV was interesting. Basically, we went to visit an oyster farm. The farmer stood on a square grid of wooden beams maybe 2 feet apart -- with 8 to 10 beams across, in the middle of the bay. The TV team was in a boat pulled up to the raft.
The beams had ropes on them, but before we got to that, he took a cup of water from the surface of the water between his feet and asked the visiting star -- a comedian -- to taste it. The comedian tried it, somewhat gingerly, and looked surprised. It was fairly fresh, even though they were well out in a saltwater bay. The farmer explained that they had had rain, so the top water was fresh -- and that it would kill the oysters. So they lower the oysters.
Next he showed us his "water tester." It was a beer bottle sitting on a good-sized stone, wired together so that the beer bottle stood upright. The wire mesh also held a rope, and there was a wooden plug tied to the rope above the bottle. The farmer pushed that plug into the mouth of the beer bottle. Then he lowered the stone and bottle and rope into the water, showing us the red marks on the rope that let him know how deep it is. At 1.8 m -- roughly 70 inches, or 5'10" -- he stopped lowering. Then he jerked the rope. He pointed out the bubbles that came floating up, waited a minute, then pulled the whole rig up quickly. He poured some of the water in the beer bottle into the cup and let the star taste this. The comedian made a face and pronounced it salty. I got the impression that the farmer could have been much more specific.
The farmer explained that the oysters like the minerals that the rains bring, but they will die if they are left in the fresh water. So there's a balance. He said when there's a typhoon, he has lowered them to 4 m to keep them safe.
Of course, he pulled up a line and showed us the oysters. There were several clusters on a rope. He said that raft had about 170 lines, and that he has about 4000 lines altogether. He also explained that the oysters he was showing us -- he took one off and opened it -- these were two-year-old oysters. He thinks this is a good size. He said that lots of people will sell you one-year-old oysters, but he doesn't think they're very good.
One other part of the short segment was interesting to me. They had an underwater camera that showed us the oysters hanging on their ropes in clusters. While we were watching, one of the oysters smoked. It blew out a cloud of white specks that floated out and up. Then a moment or two later, another one blew a similar cloud of smoke. I have to admit, if they explained what this was, I missed it, but I found the image of the oysters hanging in their watery clusters, blowing smoke, quite charming.
So -- that was our 10 minute or so introduction to oyster farming. Frankly, I hadn't realized that they have to raise and lower the oysters to keep them in the best water. Or that they smoke while they are growing up!
Yesterday's Furosato (hometown) piece at lunch on TV was interesting. Basically, we went to visit an oyster farm. The farmer stood on a square grid of wooden beams maybe 2 feet apart -- with 8 to 10 beams across, in the middle of the bay. The TV team was in a boat pulled up to the raft.
The beams had ropes on them, but before we got to that, he took a cup of water from the surface of the water between his feet and asked the visiting star -- a comedian -- to taste it. The comedian tried it, somewhat gingerly, and looked surprised. It was fairly fresh, even though they were well out in a saltwater bay. The farmer explained that they had had rain, so the top water was fresh -- and that it would kill the oysters. So they lower the oysters.
Next he showed us his "water tester." It was a beer bottle sitting on a good-sized stone, wired together so that the beer bottle stood upright. The wire mesh also held a rope, and there was a wooden plug tied to the rope above the bottle. The farmer pushed that plug into the mouth of the beer bottle. Then he lowered the stone and bottle and rope into the water, showing us the red marks on the rope that let him know how deep it is. At 1.8 m -- roughly 70 inches, or 5'10" -- he stopped lowering. Then he jerked the rope. He pointed out the bubbles that came floating up, waited a minute, then pulled the whole rig up quickly. He poured some of the water in the beer bottle into the cup and let the star taste this. The comedian made a face and pronounced it salty. I got the impression that the farmer could have been much more specific.
The farmer explained that the oysters like the minerals that the rains bring, but they will die if they are left in the fresh water. So there's a balance. He said when there's a typhoon, he has lowered them to 4 m to keep them safe.
Of course, he pulled up a line and showed us the oysters. There were several clusters on a rope. He said that raft had about 170 lines, and that he has about 4000 lines altogether. He also explained that the oysters he was showing us -- he took one off and opened it -- these were two-year-old oysters. He thinks this is a good size. He said that lots of people will sell you one-year-old oysters, but he doesn't think they're very good.
One other part of the short segment was interesting to me. They had an underwater camera that showed us the oysters hanging on their ropes in clusters. While we were watching, one of the oysters smoked. It blew out a cloud of white specks that floated out and up. Then a moment or two later, another one blew a similar cloud of smoke. I have to admit, if they explained what this was, I missed it, but I found the image of the oysters hanging in their watery clusters, blowing smoke, quite charming.
So -- that was our 10 minute or so introduction to oyster farming. Frankly, I hadn't realized that they have to raise and lower the oysters to keep them in the best water. Or that they smoke while they are growing up!
