Little Wing Oysters

PSP level down finally

2012-01-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

It's been the longest Red Tide in over 12 years! We got our first clear sample last week, two more spaced one week apart and we can get back in the market. It was a very intense Red Tide, higher than any record I have.

Our oysters should be in Vancouver around January 12th.

AIMAP Project

2011-12-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

With the support of DFO's AIMAP, we designed and tested a mobilefloating seed sorter and handling system to enable us to do a better job in handling our young oysters. Until now, the sorting of oyster seed was done manually using screening trays infrequently. Follow this link to our project page.

Red Tide Again

2011-10-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

We're under a PSP closure at about the same time as last year. This time though, I was able to predict the closure and cancelled the shipment of oysters destined for Vancouver a few days before we got notified of high biotoxin levels.

Two Alexandrium cells together centre right

The biotoxin is produced mainly by a genera of phytoplankton called Alexandrium. Before preparing the order for October 12, I took a plankton sample to see if Alexandrium was present. Well it was there all right, in significant numbers, so I cancelled the order and spread the word to the other farmers of an eminent closure.

It's a bit of a guessing game as Alexandrium does not always produce the toxin and at other times there can be very few but they are highly toxic.

As it turns out it was a good move otherwise we would have had a greater volume of shellfish to recall. Since that Monday was Thanksgiving, the mussel sample was late in getting to the lab thus delaying the biotoxin results for that week.

Most of the shellfish being recalled is from previous shipments and the biotoxin levels were too low to cause an illness, I eat raw oysters from every shipment I send and would have felt higher levels.

2011 Oyster Seeds

2011-06-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Finally picked up half of the oyster seed June 15th. The hatcheries had poor survival this year which resulted in getting smaller seed later than usual, nonetheless better late than never!

I picked them from Vancouver Island, by the time I got back on the last ferry, drove to the harbour and arrived to the farm at 10:30, the sun had set but the light was great. A beautiful day!

Finally

2011-04-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

We got our first plankton bloom a few weeks ago, quite dense and good quality. I can tell the oysters love it. You will start to notice the difference from week to week.

From now until the end of May is when our oysters are at their best!

Spring any day now

2011-03-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

What a long winter!

I've been expecting a plankton bloom for a while but the weather has been rather uncooperative to say the least. Water as warmed to 8C and it looks like the winds will back down for a few days at least. That should give the chance for a bloom to occur especially if the Sun manages to get through.

The oysters are ready and looking forward to some good food I'm sure, then we'll be getting the best flavours.

Can't wait!

Canadian Chef Congress

2010-11-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice picture of the Little Wings taken at the Canadian Chef Congress in September. I shucked quite a few of our oysters that night.

Red tide over

2010-11-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

The closure on the area has just lifted. It was a moderate bloom and fairly short for this time of year. I'll be sending oysters to Vancouver within a few days.

Had eaten a few already, they're better than last year at this time. I'm not quite caught up from the busy summer but just about!

Enjoy!

Oyster Recall

2010-10-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, we got caught by surprise with a late Red Tide.

We got noticed of a PSP closure a couple of days after I sent a small shipment of oysters to Vancouver. As a precaution CFIA recalled the lot in case the PSP levels were higher than they thought.

The media picked up the story in a big way, more so since there has been various concerns over contaminated food lately, not only oysters.

The main thing is nobody got sick. We have excellent safeguards in place to avoid PSP poisoning. CFIA test shellfish weekly and the detection level is well below the amount needed for poisoning. Even if some oysters get to market before we find out the results of the tests, the levels are low enough that nobody is likely to get sick.

Also, the sample areas are well known hot spots that show PSP before anywhere else. My farm is a good way from there and I confident the PSP in the oysters I sent was low.

I don't mind the recall, it had to be done as a precaution, allways on the safe side.

Busy Summer

2010-09-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

What a summer!

I managed to keep on top of things, mostly anyway. Survival was excellent on the new oysters that we got this year. It's still early but it looks like we'll have some one year old ready for market this fall.

The water has cooled to about 15oC so that will get the oysters to change track, from reproduction to storing proteins for the winter. The result will be for the better in taste.

Oyster seed

2010-05-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we received 600 000 oyster seed which is part of what we need. I'll be getting more at the end of May.

With the good weather, the seeds should do well. I've been keeping a close look at them and I can tell they are feeding well. Sometime if the food is too big or unpalatable, they can starve.

I got them at 4mm in length and 20 000 will fit in a litre. By the end of the summer, they'll be at 60 per litre.

They oysters are very tasty and sweet, a result of the good quality food in the water.

Enjoy!

2010-03-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

It took a while but we finally have a decent phytoplankton bloom in Okeover since about the 16th of March, two weeks later than last year. Up until now we had mostly zooplankton although the Skeletonema and Cheatoceros species have been slowly increasing but visibility was still to 40'.

Not it up to 17' with mostly Thalassiosira, Skeletonema and Cheatoceros. Temp is 8.6, Salinity 24ppt.

Here we go, another growing season starting. This food is good for the oysters, you will start noticing an improvement in the quality of the oysters within a few weeks.

Enjoy

2010-03-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is just around the corner!

Even with the cool water and the stormy weather, the phytoplankton is more abundant and I'm starting to see more species. The longer days are making the difference.

I expect that as soon as we get some sun, the plankton density will increase significantly.

It's all good for the oysters as this time of year provides them with some quality food after the winter rest.

Within the next few weeks, you'll start to notice a difference when eating an oyster, the meat will be more flavorful and fill the shell.

2010-01-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

When it comes to farming, it does not get more sustainable that oysters.

There are many ways to grow oysters but basically, they feed themselves, don't need medication and nothing is added to the water. We do depend on clean water free of pollution and that is where you want to choose carefully where the oysters you eat come from. Oysters take on a distinctive taste based on what they feed on, how productive the area is and how they are handled.

I take great care to ensure that the product I sell is handled in a way to minimize stress. I love oysters and eat them all the time, I use that to gauge the quality of the oysters before they go to market. Okeover has been called the rain forest of the ocean because of its productivity and diversity of its plankton.

2009-12-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

We're definitely in winter now, short days, night tides, snow, rain, some wind. So far the conditions have not been so extreme to abversely affect the oysters.

My main concern at this time of the year is with frozen oysters. They will survive freezing if they are not handled and temperature stay over -10oC.

I've got a good supply of high quality product, the meat is excellent. If they go on the beach under nourished, you get meat that is thin and not as flavorful. The growing season was excellent and I was more on top of it.

2009-12-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

It's good to see oysters leaving the inlet again. Oyster farming support more than 20 families in our area.

Little Wing Oysters are available in North America all year, they are at their best from December to the end of May.

2009-11-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

Here we go!

Sent our first shipment of oysters last night so they will be trickling in to Restaurants in Vancouver Today.

I did some grading this afternoon, I was in such a good mood. I'm really happy about the quality of the meat and the taste is out of this world.

I've got this one batch that I'm keeping until mid January and they're truly the best I've tasted in quite a while, sweet and savoury.

2009-11-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

In this picture is what oysters feed on, plankton. Here, are some species of Chaetoceros, Leptocylindrus, Coccinodiscus, a large Protoperidinium and a Ditylum cell beside it.

2009-10-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

The oysters are exellent this year. They will be available in three to four weeks!

2009-10-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

Fresh Oysters from the waters of Okeover Inlet, BC Canada
　
　

We bring you our best shellfish!

Okeover Inlet is located 150 km north of Vancouver in a sparsely populated area. The waters of the inlet are clean and rich in plankton providing one of the best areas of the province for growing shellfish.

We take great care to ensure you get the best oysters we produce. We’ve been working with our site since 2001, we learned the particularities of the farm and developed a method for growing oysters that is producing a high quality product.

The process starts with a floating bag system where the oysters are kept at the surface to take advantage of the richer, warmer waters. The wave action created by wind and boats keeps the oysters moving inside the bags resulting in a well-formed oyster with a deep cup. The floating bags create a harder shell and more of the energy is directed toward the growing meat than found in tray or rack grown product.

As the oysters reach two to three inches, they are manually sorted to pull the best grade before being put on the beach. We found that when the oysters are placed on the beach for more than two months, they develop a taste unique to the site. The beach period also reinforces the shells, conditions the oyster to stay shut for longer periods causing the meat to become firm.

The oysters destined for market are removed from the site at the last possible minute and taken directly to a refrigerated truck to ensure the best condition possible before transportation.

2009-10-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

PROTECTNG WATER QUALITY
Shellfish farmers depend on clean, nutrient-rich waters for their livelihoods. Shellfish feed only on the naturally occurring organisms in our waters, so if this food source is depleted or affected by pollution, then the farmers are the first to notice.
Local residents in shellfish farming areas can take comfort from knowing that growers are monitoring the waters year round, using methods ranging from simple observation to sophisticated water quality testing and laboratory analysis.
　
FIGHTING POLLUTION
Perhaps less well known is the fact that the presence of oysters and other filter feeding shellfish in large concentrations has a very beneficial ecological effect in helping to mitigate some of the damage done to coastal areas by upland activities.The story of how oysters are saving Chesapeake Bay (Virginia) is an interesting one. In common with Okeover Inlet here in BC, it has a long history of a very high density of oysters growing in its waters. However, environmental scientists attribute the declining health of the Chesapeake Bay through much of the 20th century to a decline in the oyster population. Oysters, in their heyday, could filter and clean all the water in the bay in three to five days. Working together to Save the Bay, state and local governments, environmentalists and shellfish farmers have pledged to increase the overall oyster population in the bay tenfold by 2010.
　
PROVIDING BIRD AND FISH HABITAT
In addition to the filtering of potentially damaging amounts of algae and sediments from the water, recent scientific studies have shown that oyster culture has other ecological benefits too. The recycling effect of filter feeding which returns valuable sediments to the bottom has been shown to increase the productivity of sea grass beds - an important habitat for juvenile fish.
Shellfish farms teem with an abundance of marine life of all kinds. It has been found that cultured shellfish and their associated plant life provide homes and protection for a variety of invertebrate and fish communities. Off-bottom longlines and rafts provide welcome habitat for creatures that in turn provide an important food source for fish and birds.
Proud of their role as good stewards of the marine environment, BC shellfish farmers have developed a Code of Practice to help reinforce ecological values.