Eat Like a Fish by Bren Smith

Author:Bren Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2019-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

Seeding Season

The permit’s in hand, your farm’s built—so now it’s time to seed the shellfish and kelp. When I shifted from fisherman to ocean farmer, I ran a death camp my first few years, killing literally millions of baby shellfish while I figured out what the hell I was doing. We’re not going to let that happen to you.

Shellfish and seaweed hatcheries are scattered along the coasts; you just need to know how and where to look. Some are private; others are housed at universities. Your local NOAA Sea Grant office will likely have a list. When you are buying seed from a hatchery, make sure that you are selecting the best brood stock available. You want seed with a proven record of good growth and survival in your particular region and body of water.

You should be planting seed in each of the four seasons. Kelp and mussels can go in during late fall or early winter. For oysters, clams, and scallops, aim for early spring. Oysters can go in during the summer, too.

Let’s start with kelp seed. It will be sold as eighteen-inch spools wrapped with seed string. Each year, the hatchery staff gather a few kelp blades from the wild and induce sporing in tanks filled with filtered seawater. They wrap 250 feet of specialized nylon string—essentially, a purer formulation of household twine—around the PVC spools, which are put in the tanks with spores. Within twenty-four hours, the spores attach to the string. Over the next four to six weeks, the kelp will grow out to one or two millimeters in length. Each spool will cost you around $150, depending on the hatchery.

It’s important to seed under the right conditions. Kelp spores thrive after water temps drop to between fifty-six to forty-six degrees Fahrenheit, which here in Southern New England is typically October or November. On the day of seeding, air temperatures need to be above freezing, factoring in windchill—I aim for forty degrees or above to be safe. Many a farmer has lost an entire crop because of setting out seed on too cold a day.

The process of outplanting is surprisingly easy. Untie one end of your horizontal longline, and feed it through the seed spool. Unravel two feet of seed string, and splice it into the line, using your fid (as an ocean farmer, you’re gonna become a master splicer). Then slowly motor your skiff down along the longline, allowing the seed spool to unravel around the line. Your job is to make sure it unwinds evenly. Be prepared to stop quickly if you develop a tangle in the seed string. Every fifty feet or so, stop the skiff and splice a float with a five-foot tail onto your longline. When you unravel the entire spool, splice the end of the seed line into the longline, again using your fid. You’re done. Each line should take five to ten minutes to seed, so you can easily seed in under two hours, even with the usual hiccups.

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