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Wellfleet Oysters

Our Wellfleet oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are grown out and harvested in and from the estuaries of Wellfleet Harbor (N 41.94/W 70.03), located in the Northeastern region of Cape Cod Bay.  This specific area of the Cape provides an idyllic setting for the aquaculture operations which have made the name Wellfleet synonymous with premium grade oysters, as well as being a great place to pick up a wallet. 
A bit of history…In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Wellfleet oyster beds were decimated by a combination of plague and overfishing.  In an effort to remedy this situation, forward thinking locals sourced a small quantity of oysters from the Chesapeake Bay area, and placed them in the local estuaries of Wellfleet Harbor as seed stock.  As anticipated, the oysters once again flourished in the waters of Cape Cod Bay, and so came the reintroduction of the Wellfleet oyster, and the birth of aquaculture in North America.  Today, the town of Wellfleet leases roughly 200 acres of tidal estuaries in and around Wellfleet Harbor to local commercial fishermen for the sole purpose of farming shellfish.  In recent years, these pristine waters have produced an annual commercial harvest of an estimated 850,000 large choice oysters.  This relatively limited availability combined with their exceptional quality has made the Wellfleet oyster one of the most highly sought after and recognizable varieties of oyster anywhere in the world.  So why are the Wellfleet oysters so remarkable?  Just like Olympia beer…It’s the water.  The waters which flush through Cape Cod Bay are provided courtesy of the Gulf of Maine.  This current originates in northern Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces, and runs in a counter-clockwise fashion, delivering an unwavering flow of nutrients throughout coastal northern New England.  By the time these currents wash over the reaches of the inner Cape they are (by Gulf of Maine standards) relatively warm.  The 12 foot tides of Cape Cod Bay play a great part in this.  What this means is that where at high-tide there is 12 feet of water, at low tide there is naught.  Twice a day, the tides recede over the protected shallows of the hard packed mud and sand flats of the Cape Cod Bay.  During this Moondance, the sun’s rays beat down on the flats, warming them.  In turn, the tidal influx is heated as it fills the estuaries.  The phytoplankton rich Gulf of Maine waters (which have now been brought to the aforementioned level of relative warmth) provide the Wellfleet oysters everything they need to grow-out quite rapidly, and produce an oyster of exceptional consistency.
The Wellfleet oyster spat (a very small, free-swimming oyster seed) is either sourced through cultches, or is gathered within the Bay by method of Chinese hat collectors. A few weeks ago, I described what a Chinese hat collector is (please see 01/05/07 Newsletter), but what is a cultch?  Cultches are essentially nothing more than submerged shell middens. Most of these shells are deposited here by the Wellfleet Shellfish Department in an effort to create a natural habitat for the veligers (larval stage oysters) to latch onto.  At any rate, these little oysters-to-be seek out other oysters (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) to attach themselves to.  The surface of the Chinese hat collectors are in fact coated with a mortar which possess a high concentration of lime, which the veligers mistake to be an oyster shell.  Pretty clever.  At any rate, the veligers attach themselves to these surfaces, and remain there until they reach roughly a half an inch or so in size.  At this point, the tiny oysters are removed from the cultch or collector, and are put into mesh bags for the bulk of their grow out before being hand planted on the hard packed floor of Wellfleet Harbor.  Wellfleets must reach a length of a minimum of three inches before they can be harvested.  This process takes roughly two to three years.  So what does this all mean?  It means that the Wellfleet oysters have been allowed to mature and have had time to propagate the species, virtually assuring both the commercial longevity of the fishery and the well being of the Wellfleet oyster as part of the ecosystem.  As an aside…Did you know that a single oyster will filter 15 gallons of seawater daily?  How’s that for being a productive part of the ecosystem?  If anyone questions the oyster’s ability to cleanse vast amounts of water, I suggest you take a look at the condition of Chesapeake Bay since its once seemingly inexhaustible oyster fishery has been teetering on the brink of total collapse.  I say this not as an alarmist, but as a realist.

Please email info@jpshellfish.com or call 207-439-6018 for more information on this and or any other J.P.'s Shellfish product or service.