Edible Vancouver Island September/October 2023

ISLAND EXPERIENCE

Captain Zach had stories about his life on the water too. Most from when he became the proud owner of Calm Seas. The boat had a contract to support the coast guard, and he spent many nights responding to boats in distress, in the worst of weather, which has made him an extremely capable captain. He was thoughtful to ask how we were doing, if the speed was ok or waves too much. As we were traveling, I tucked inside the cabin while everyone was enjoying the salt spray on the stern to ask a few oyster questions, as I love learning the details of the food I'm about to enjoy. The intersection of oysters and his life on the water occurred when Captain Zach fell in love with a local woman. Her family has been working in local aquaculture for generations; they are the founders of Sawmill Bay Shellfish Company. Captain Zach spent many summers working on the family oyster operation. I didn’t realize that this is the only oyster farm tour available from Campbell River and he created it with the intention to teach–and his love of oysters and aquaculture is certainly contagious! Captain Zach explained how farming oysters is one of the most sustainable forms of aquaculture. Oysters are resilient and need little more than nutrient-rich water to grow. Being filter feeders, each oyster will effectively clean 50 gallons of water per day–the equivalent of a big bathtub. They are rich in protein and are an excellent source of minerals and vitamins. The oysters in these waters are the Pacific oyster. Their flavour is dependent on where and how they are grown (if they are spread on beaches or grown in deep water) and can change depending on the time of year, the type of plankton present and the water temperature. Consuming oysters as a main source of protein is also a way to have a climate-focused diet. (Apparently, if Americans replaced 10% of their beef intake with oysters, it would be the same as taking more than 10 million cars off the road, in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction.) As we pulled up to Read Island, we discovered these long rows of large tubes filled with small holes and big wheels at each end all attached to a floating dock system. Before we ventured over there, Captain Zach pulled us up to a dock and tied off the boat. As he pulled up a stack of large square mesh bags from the crystal-clear water, we could see starfish and anemones attached to the floats and deep rocks below. It was heavy work to pull up those bags, with each one half filled with oysters. He pulled some out so we could compare sizes and see how they looked. The oysters would live in the bags for two years to grow, and every two weeks, the bags needed to be flipped to allow the sun to clean the shells and naturally rotate the oysters. We could see

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