Coming End of May, 2013…

It’s already an incredible story. Last year, York County, VA. Oyster Farmer Anthony Bavuso (Seaford Oyster Company) was denied a Special Use Permit (SUP) by the York County Board of Supervisors for a commercial oyster farm on the Poquosin River. In a reversal of the Board’s decision, the Circuit Court ruled that Mr. Bavuso needed no permit.

Seaford Oyster may have won the right to farm, but the struggle depleted the family’s finances. To scale the operation to a more sustainable level, more enclosures (cages) are needed to grow the young oysters to commercially-harvestable size. Each 2′X3′ cage is hand built using wire materials costing ~$60. The company has asked Ahyayha for help with funds to partially cover expenses associated with the creation of 75 cages. Collectively, these cages will remove roughly 414 pounds of nitrogen over 10 harvest cycles to clean-up the Bay. And the nitrogen removal is not the only benefit.  The oysters and cages provide a mini-reef structure as habitat for a multitude of marine animals.  The oysters also filter algae out of the water increasing water clarity and promoting growth of aquatic grasses.

In return, Seaford Oyster will ship fresh oysters to every contributor along with other rewards (Kudos) such as hats, t-shirts, and perhaps a plaque on the cages. They are also thinking about adding a student water quality monitoring component to the project.

So, all you Ches. Bay oyster lovers, stay tuned – we’ll launch this project by Spring of this year.