After fishing, we stopped off at Dave's Oyster Farm. The flourescent buoys marked his oyster trays and lit up the overcast sky. They were full of all sorts of sealife and were an education in Alaskan sea creatures all by themselves.
Dave's Oyster Farm. Dave lives out in the sound and raises oysters in the cold, nutrient-rich Alaskan water. Each of the buoys has nets and racks of oysters beneath it. These oysters were some of the cleanest, tastiest oysters we've had in a long time.
Here's Dave coming up to the discovery in his boat.
The oyster nets became homes for all sorts of marine life including mussels, kelp, starfish, urchins, shrimp and fish.
These mussels have nearly overgrown this oyster net. The mussels compete for the plankton with the oysters and therefore must be periodically cleaned off of the net.
These oysters were grown in a tray instead, both protecting them from marauding ducks and also minimizing the mussels.
The trays were host to all sorts of sealife that Dave passed up to us on the boat to look at. This one is a brittlestar.
This is an Ochre Star. These will eat the oysters if they get big enough.
A stray prawn that wandered into the trays.
A red scallop (left) and a small urchin (right).
©Arnold Gum 2005, 2011