New Hanover County Farm Bureau member Jay Styron is on his way to check his oyster crop off of Cedar Island. He raises oysters in floating cages. It takes at least 14 months for the oysters to grow large enough to be market size.

State’s production is poised for major growth

North Carolina already owns a heralded agricultural reputation for producing sweet potatoes, hogs, turkeys and tobacco. Could the state be on its way toward becoming a stalwart in oyster production, too? New Hanover County Farm Bureau member Jay Styron hopes so.

Styron is part of a growing contingent of oyster growers in North Carolina, a group that produced 10,651 bushels of the seafood mainstay last year. That figure represented a 48-percent rise from a year earlier according to tabulations by North Carolina State University, the N.C. Cooperative Extension and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“I’m very enthused,” says Styron, who raises his oysters on Cedar Island in Carteret County. “I look around and I see so much potential for North Carolina. I think we could become a leader in oyster production along the East Coast given the right conditions to help growers. North Carolina’s got an untapped gold mine sitting right here. I’m just hoping we can get enough people interested in the potential to really get this going.”
Besides raising oysters, Styron also is the assistant director of marine operations at the Center for Marine Science at UNC Wilmington. Because he sees not only the aquaculture potential for North Carolina oyster growers, Styron explains how the creature is a critical component in maintaining a healthy environment along the state’s shoreline.

“While an oyster is out in the environment living, it’s filtering the surrounding water,” Styron says. “While it’s doing that, it’s taking out the excess nutrients that might be in the water. It’s helping to clean and clear out the water it’s living in, which makes it better for other species. Also while it’s out there living, it’s a shelter and home for a lot of other juvenile species of fish, shrimp, crabs and things like that. It’s basically out there as a little artificial reef from the time that we have it out there.”

Growing oysters
Without hesitation, Styron says water quality is the most important part of growing a good, high quality oyster, a process that takes at least 12 to 14 months.

“That’s one thing about most of North Carolina’s estuary system is we do really have high water quality,” Styron says.

Along with water quality, Styron noted that site selection also is critical. Oyster farmers have to consider the wave action a site has as well as how close it might be to other coastal development areas.

According to state officials, a total of 232 North Carolina leaseholders tended to 1,734 acres of oysters and clams last year.

It takes about 14 months for an oyster to reach market size. And Styron says an oyster can take as long as 24 months before being ready for harvesting.

Just like North Carolina’s farmers on the mainland, Styron says oyster growers are at the mercy of the weather, too, especially if a hurricane churns into the state.

“Unfortunately a hurricane could totally wipe out an oyster operation, especially one like ours because we grow ours in floating cages,” Styron says. “You can imagine a hurricane coming through and it just wipes everything away. You’ve lost your cages if they were swept away too far or you don’t know which way they went when they broke free.

“In a lot of ways, we’re just like other farmers. A farmer plants corn. A drought comes through and he loses his crop. A hurricane could do the same thing to us,” he adds.

Varying oyster flavors
Styron explains how different locations in North Carolina can produce an oyster that tastes different.

His operation on Cedar Island contains an oyster habitat that has medium salinity waters. As a result, Styron says his oysters have a little bit of a salty taste but the actual oyster flavor is present as well.

“You’ll get a little bit of the sweetness from the oyster, but that changes from day to day depending on what environmental factors are happening in the general area,” Styron says.

Farther north along the state’s shoreline or at the mouth of one of North Carolina’s rivers that drain Down East, the salinity of the water is much lower.

“You’ll have less of the briny flavor and possibly even more of the oyster flavor. And even depending on where the oyster is at, maybe even a little watered down flavor,” Styron says about the oysters grown at those locations.

Furthermore, if the oysters are grown in an inlet right next to the ocean, the briny flavor will come out the most since the water’s salt content is the highest.

“It’s sort of how the wine connoisseurs compare wines that are grown regionally,” Styron says. “Each region might have its own flavor even if it’s the same exact variety of grape, but they can taste the subtle differences. The oysters are the same way. They pick up what’s in the water and transfer it to their bodies so you taste what is actually in the water.”

And that taste is what has brought thousands of people to southeastern North Carolina.

For 32 years, the North Carolina Oyster Festival has attracted more than 50,000 attendees to Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County to celebrate the taste and heritage of oyster cuisine.

Oyster future
Styron began his oyster operation back in 2006. Along with keeping up with his own oyster crop, his work with UNCW as well as being president of the North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association takes him up and down the coastline helping other oyster growers.

“We’re basically in our infancy in this state,” Styron says in comparison to neighboring Virginia, which has a much larger oyster industry. “North Carolina imports about 75 percent of the oysters that are consumed here. When you have that type of market share possibly available, the sky is almost the limit.”