Bright Side Oyster Company is a beacon of resilience in the face of adversity. Nathan Herring's farm is located in the waters off of Grand Isle, Louisiana—an area that was in the direct pathways of both Hurricanes Zeta and Ida. Herring has persevered through the struggles of starting an aquaculture business in a nascent industry in an ecologically volatile area. His work ethic, passion, and optimism guarantee that Bright Side Oyster Co will weather any storm that comes its way.  

Tucked in the nutrient-rich waters of the ACE Basin, one of the nation’s most pristine wetland ecosystems, lies Lowcountry Oyster Co.

A photo essay on Glidden Point Oyster Co., nestled along Maine’s Damariscotta River.

Adam, his entire family, and those assisting the Campbell’s on their oyster farm, share an exuberant passion for aquaculture. Adam was excited to share the history of North Haven Oyster Company, as well as how he farms his prized oysters.

On a golden summer morning, oyster farmer Greg Foote of Dirigo Marine Resources, tends to his farm’s precious oysters growing in cages in the cerulean waters of Casco Bay. During the summer months, while the ocean waters are still calm, and before the sun climbs high into the sky, oyster farmers, like Greg, embark on daily morning commutes to their farms.

Named after a five-masted schooner that served as a speakeasy during the Prohibition era, the Cora Cressy Oyster, farmed by oyster farmers Boe Marsh and Zak Alexander of Commuinty Shellfish, is grown in the waters of a grandfathered lobster pound in Bremen Maine on the Medomak River.

Joanna Fogg is a mythological human with a combination of qualities I did not think could coexist in one being. In June of 2015, Joanna and Jesse Fogg applied for a limited purpose aquaculture lease to begin Bar Harbor Oyster Company, a 22-acre oyster farm in Mount Desert Narrows. Joanna works full-time as a mother, wife, aquaculturist, event planner, and Mount Desert Island community member.

In Maine, wild oysters grow in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Gulf of Maine estuaries au natural. Known as “wilds,” these bivalves flourish on the bottom of the seafloor, and their fluted edges are etched by the natural ebb and flow of the tides.

A reflection of the status of women in the seafood industry on International Women's Day: 2022

We spent a chilly evening wading through the shallow waters of Goose Cove near Mount Desert Island with oyster farmer, Brian Harvey. What the tides revealed was truly an oyster lover's dream.

Chris Burtis, Max Burtis, and Sam Dorval, the trio that is Ferda Farms, share their insights as to how they incorporate engineering innovation, marketing ingenuity, and a commitment to sustainability in the practice of farming their oyster, the Bombazine, on the New Meadows River in Brunswick, Maine.

I enjoyed an amazing evening harvesting Sugar Kelp (Saccharina Latissima) with Ridley Cove Kelp owner Isaac Burtis, and learning the process for growing Maine's up-and-coming superfood: seaweed.

Orchard Point Oyster Co. founder Scott Budden left his corporate financial analyst position in Washington D.C. to start a career on the Chesapeake as an oyster farmer. Budden and his team persevered through new statutory enactments and competing private interests to become a Chesapeake oyster farm giant with a massive distribution platform.