The summer season is approaching its end. For corporate America, this might be the slowest season of the year. But for farms and other companies that thrive in the summer, busy is merely an understatement. Rhode Island is not known as the Ocean State just for its shoreline. Seafood has, and will always be, one of the biggest reasons folks spend their summer in South County, and few seafoods embody that coastal pride more than the oyster.
Meet Blue Acres Aquaculture, a family-run farm producing thousands of high-quality oysters each year. Owner Oliver Dixon and his crew manage their crop year-round, with a strong focus on sustainability and innovation. Based in South County, they also cultivate sugar kelp, contributing to RI’s growing aquaculture scene. To understand what oyster farming looks like in the colder seasons, I spoke with Brian Mejia, Farm Manager at Point Judith Pond, who shared how he and his team prepare for the months ahead.
Under Dixon’s leadership, Brian manages the farm’s daily harvest. “That means going through oysters and sorting them into three different piles,” he explains. “One is for the market, another is for stuff that is going back into the farm because it needs more time to grow, and the last one is dead shells that are collected for other projects.”
Blue Acres Aquaculture is not just about harvesting and selling oysters. Driven by a long-term vision to become RI’s leading aquaculture farm, the company aims to balance production with restoration. A key initiative involves collecting, bleaching, and sun-drying dead oyster shells so they can become a new home for future oysters. In partnership with the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), the farm sells different shells for use in these kinds of restoration strategies. Once the baby oysters, also known as spats, attach to the shells, they are placed back in the water to grow.
Another project the farm aims to accomplish is shifting to a floating cage system. “There are different ways to grow oysters,” Brian explains. “One of the ways is to put them at the bottom of the water, so they are not exposed. Some people think it is prettier or neater since it is not in anyone’s way. However, it is heavier and more time-consuming for the farmer. So, we are trying to eliminate that with a floating cage system that, instead of the cage being at the bottom of the water, will be floating on the surface.”
This allows the oysters to receive a good tumble. It naturally chips away at the shell, making it stronger than before. Alongside this project, the farm also plans to expand by another acre, boosting oyster production for years ahead.
This fall, the farm is taking a different approach to its work. Compared to the constant demand of summer, fall will slow down the work, but not automatically stop. Projects will continue, as well as harvesting. However, seeding will be a new task added to the routine. “To better explain seeding. Say we have 160,000 oysters, as an example. 65,000 of it will be gone from the farm. A way to bring that back is through oyster seeds that you put back in the farm to let them grow during the fall until they are ready to be sold,” says Brian. This way, when the oyster harvesting picks up during the spring months, these seeds will be ready.
Winter slows things even further as demand drops, so farmers use this season to reflect and refine.“The wintertime just allows us to figure out, like, hey, what did we do during the summertime that could be improved?” Whether it is upgrading equipment, studying different ways to harvest, or finding new ways to be more sustainable, this sort of job demands more than just collecting and selling oysters. “This kind of farming has only been in Rhode Island since the early 90s and only started hitting ground stride during the early 2000s.” The slow seasons bring new conversations on whether more money is needed for new systems or to keep expanding.
A sister farm is found 20 minutes away from the Point Judith Pond. This farm becomes a primary focus during fall because it is regularly set up during this season. It then grows during the winter and by early spring, right before the oysters are ready for the busy season, the kelp is distributed and sold.
Aside from the non-stop demand, the hotter months also raise concerns about temperature that the colder months alleviate. “During the summertime, we are more concerned about the water temperature because once we harvest the oysters, we have like a two-hour limit to have them sorted and then refrigerated. If not, they can grow bacteria and severely hurt someone if consumed,” Brian explains. Fortunately, the drop in temperature allows a bit of a window for the farmers to sort out oysters.
To simplify the question of what aquaculture looks like during the colder months, while oysters are mainly a summer staple, it is that their production and consumption never stop. “There is never really a time when people are like, ‘We do not want more oysters,’ you know?”
Visit Blue Acres Aquaculture at blueacresaquaculture.com