This post kicks off the documentary part of this project. I am excited to begin by showing a crop grown by Eastfield Farm in Mathews, Virginia: oysters. While raising oysters technically falls into aquaculture rather than agriculture, it is a sustainable way to raise food and is uniquely suited to Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay.

The oyster is a keystone species for the Chesapeake; it provides habitat for species in the form of reefs and filters out debris and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The overall health of the Chesapeake ecosystem has declined dramatically in recent years, along with the decline in the oyster population. The oyster’s decline has exacerbated problems in the Chesapeake Bay, including pollution, loss of habitat and loss of biodiversity.

Oyster aquaculture provides one way to begin to restore the oyster population and overall health of the Chesapeake region’s ecosystem. Specifically, oyster aquaculture adds to the oyster population and provides habitat for other species.

Peter Perina, who––together with his wife Diane––owns Eastfield Farms, suggests that our society needs to develop new means to procure food. Since we are stationery, we cannot take food from where we live without planting a seed to replace it, because we no longer move from new place to new place. Oyster aquaculture is one method that moves us towards sustainable food production–allowing us to remain stationery and not ruin our environment and food sources.

Oyster shells line the dock off of which oysters are raised. The shells are used as starters for oysters to latch onto. They also provide habitat for numerous other species, including these shrimp (below) that ended up on the dock when Peter Perina pulled up a bucket of oysters he was raising on the waterbed. Eastfield Farms raises “single” oysters in floating baskets—the kind of oyster that one may eat on the half shell at a raw bar. Below is a photograph of Peter Perina flipping the oyster basket to clean and aerate the oysters and basket.
Oysters can also be raised on the bottom, but these oysters are more susceptible to predators, do not grow as quickly and are not as fancy (i.e. no oysters on the half shell). Below is a small collection of oysters raised on the waterbed.

Note how you can see through the water to the bottom. Peter Perina explained that in the summer you cannot see to the bottom because of algal blooms. Algal blooms are a signal of poor ecosystem health and nutrient runoff from farm and lawn fertilizer—another sign that current farming practices must change. The algae blocks sunlight, making it hard for marine life that depends on sunlight to grow.

To learn more about oysters, oyster gardening and the Chesapeake visit:
VIMS: http://www.vims.edu/research/topics/oysters/index.php
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation: www.cbf.org