Fiberglass boats revolutionize Chesapeake Bay's oyster fleet
Published onNorth Carolina fiberglass production boatbuilders have made giant inroads into commercial fishing boat markets on Chesapeake Bay. During the 1970s, '80s, and into the '90s, wooden boats, large and small, dominated the commercial inshore fisheries on the bay. This year, during Virginias oyster season, snow and ice have kept many boats at the dock. All it takes is a quick survey of those boats to reveal that fiberglass boats are now the most worked style of vessel in Virginias oyster fishery. North Carolina wooden boatbuilders began to shift from wood to fiberglass construction in the 1970s, and their vision, diversity, and innovative production concepts have produced several styles of work platforms that have contributed to the change in the workboat culture on the bay - from wood to fiberglass. President of the Virginia Watermens Association, J. C. Hudgins, says about 50 percent of the Virginia oyster fleet now works out of ...
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Oyster farming growing rapidly along Texas coast
Published onTexas AM AgriLife Extensions Sea Grant Program informed local agricultural community members of the fairly new and quickly growing industry of oyster farming during the 2024 South Texas Farm and Ranch Show Wednesday. Read more
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Tilghman Island’s father and son deadrise builders
Published onJohn C. Kinnamon Sr., 84, and his son J.C., 53, of Tilghman Island, Md., are still turning out glass-over-wood Chesapeake Bay deadrise workboats for Chesapeake and Delaware bays watermen. John Kinnamon, 84, has built commercial workboats in Tilghman Island, Md. since the late 1960s. He and his son J. C. are still building boats. Larry Chowning photo. J.C. currently has two boats underway. He is working out of two boat shopsone in a building that he leases on Tilghman Island and the other in his fathers shop, located just before crossing the Tilghman Island drawbridge onto the island. At Johns shop, J.C. has a 32 x 11 hull yet to be turned over for White Stone, Va. oysterman George Verlander. It will be used in Virginias public and private oyster dredge fisheries. We have had many boats go right to Virginia to work in the ...
Read MoreMSX-resistant oysters possible answer in PEI
Published onP.E.I. is balancing a lot of complex issues as it determines how to deal with the MSX parasite threatening the oyster fishery, says provincial Fisheries Minister Cory Deagle. Read more
Read MoreNext steps called critical in PEI battle to save oysters
Published onWith a parasite deadly to oysters highly likelyto bepresent in most P.E.I. waterways soon if it isn't already, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says deciding what to do next about the crisis is crucial. Read more
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UF experts propose tech to revive Apalachicola Bay oysters
Published onA group of experts from the University of Florida haveauthored a reportproposing the use of innovative technology that could help revive Floridas once-prolific Apalachicola Bay oyster fishery. Apalachicola Bay, located in northwest Florida in the Gulf of Mexico,was long the source ofmost of the oysterssold in the southeast U.S. stateand comprised about 10 percent of those sold across the entire country. The bays oysters were famous for their quality and taste and an economic driver in the region,producing USD6.6 million (EUR 6 million) worthof salesin 2011. However, the fishery collapsed in 2012 due to a number of factors,including overharvestingin responseto the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, which increased demand for Apalachicola oysters.Rising salinityhas also likely played a role, as the Apalachicola River which feeds into the bay was frequently diverted during droughts to surrounding cities and towns, creating conditions that favored predators. By 2013 ...
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PVC gives new life to sharpies and skiffs
Published onThe importance of small commercial fishing skiffs in the history of commercial fishing in the United States should never be underestimated. Throughout the country's coastal areas, different styles of skiffs evolved to navigate local water conditions where seafood was harvested close to shore. Some boatbuilders in the Chesapeake Bay region are using PVC to build new boats based on those traditional designs. The use of PVC versus wood also appears to be helping to extend the life of some of the bays older wooden commercial fishing boats. Boatbuilder Eric Hedberg of Rionholdt Once and Future Boats in Gwynn's Island, Va. recently got an order to build a 14 two-mast sharpie out of PVC materials. The buyer, from Manteo, N.C., had ancestors who had worked a sharpie in the Carolina sounds pound net fishery. He had researched the history of the boat and then I got into ...
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Research seen as critical to defeat oyster parasite in PEI
Published onCHARLOTTETOWN Prince Edward Islands fisheries minister says he hopes recently announced federal funding can help develop oysters that are resistant to a parasite that is threatening a fishery vital to the province. Read more
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Off the tides, work goes on for oystermen
Published onWELLFLEET Jimmy Mulpeter stands under the shade of a patio umbrella on an August afternoon, holding oyster after oyster against a metal gauge before tossing them into one of five buckets. Hes sorting them by size, and he works fast, picking up his pace when momentarily unobserved. Read more
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Oyster breeding study to address ocean acidification
Published onOcean acidification is negatively changing the way oysters grow their shells. Shells are thinner, leaving oysters more vulnerable and resulting in their deaths. Read more
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A modern tribute to Delaware Bay's oyster industry
Published onDelaware Bay Shipbuilding Co. LLC of Leesburg, N. J., launched the 64 x 20 x 4 5 oyster dredge boat, Jill Louise, on June 15 for Bivalve Packing Company (BPC) out of Port Norris, N.J. President of BPC Steve Fleetwood says the firm was founded in 1946 and is one of the largest oyster growers/packers in New Jersey. The new boat is named after Fleetwoods daughter-in-law and modeled after a 1920s New Jersey wooden dredge schooner. The new steel hull boat will be worked on Delaware Bay and Great Bay, dredging oysters and maintaining grounds by moving, cleaning, and replanting shell and seed oysters. The new vessel is an Eastern rig/schooner-style vessel with the house aft, which allows for plenty of workspace forward. The raised aluminum pilothouse with nine windows provides good visibility and oversight of the workspace for the helmsman. The Jill Louise ...
Read More2023 a record year for Maryland oysters
Published onAccording to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, it saw the most bushels ever harvested by the states aquaculture operations, at over 94,000. Read more
Read MoreGalveston Bay oyster destruction ‘unprecedented’
Published onIn the first six months of this year, Texans have suffered from devastating natural disasters, from tornadoes in downtown Houston and central Texas, to the largest wildfire in state history in the panhandle, and severe flooding and heavy rainfall that has now wiped out the oyster industry in the Galveston Bay area. Read more
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Partnership restoring Texas oyster reef lost to hurricane
Published onIt takes almost no time at all for the looming mountain of oyster shells to begin collapsing on the boat. The gray tower is twice the height of the crew, but it teeters as two men with water cannons blast the base at high pressure, pushing recycled oyster shells out the open sides of the boat and into Galveston Bay, where they settle deep into the ocean muck. Read more
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New lease on life for historic skipjack
Published onThe skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark has recovered from that December. 2022 collision when a truck driven by a drunk driver ran off a pier at Tilghman Island, Md., landed on the deck and damaged the boat. The crash tore off the starboard aft corner of the boat, taking out the railing, a portion of the stern, davits and GPS system. The boat was repaired and brought back to life in 2023 at Madison Bay Boat Yard in Madison, Md. The vessel is back at the Madison yard this April to have top decks fiberglassed with West System Epoxy. Yard co-owner Benny Horseman said when the vessel arrived last year after being damaged by the truck, she was almost ready for the burn pile. She looks like a new boat now, says Horseman. Last year, the yard fixed the damage to the boat and in addition built and installed a ...
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Connecticut oyster schooner up on the rails
Published onThe Connecticut schooner Suzanne is up on the rails at Cockrells Marine Railway in Burgess, Va., getting ready for the State of Marylands annual oyster seed, shell, and spat-on-shell planting season. The 53 x 18 x 5.4 Suzanne, built in 1939, arrived on the Chesapeake Bay in February 2023 along with three other Connecticut wooden schooners. The vessels, Columbia, Bivalve, Robert M. Ute, and Suzanne were brought to the bay to work as seed and shell planters in Marylands growing oyster fishery. The vessels were part of a fleet of large wooden vessels owned by Hillary Bloom Shellfish Co. out of Bridgeport, Conn., who sold the boats as part of downsizing the business. The vessels were used in the firms oyster and clam fisheries. Suzanne was purchased by Jamie Harrington of Captain Phips Seafood in Secretary, Md., to plant seed and shell on private grounds and in ...
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