The oyster has been a staple in Mississippi kitchens for generations.
The oyster has been a staple in Mississippi kitchens for generations, with popular dishes like oyster stew and oyster dressing gracing tables throughout the state. They grow naturally along the Gulf Coast, where anyone with the right tools can harvest them.
With rising popularity and diminution of viable habitat, the oyster industry needed a boost, and that is where a cross-section of government agencies and private businesses joined together to create another avenue for increasing oyster production to meet demand.
A training program began in 2018 at the Deer Island Commercial Aquaculture Park off the Biloxi mainland, teaching prospective oyster farmers how to plant, grow, and harvest the shellfish and providing the initial seed. Oyster farmers are then able to lease a section of the 466-acre park for their oyster crops.
There are several commercial oyster farming companies on the Coast, as well as individual farmers working within cooperatives taking advantage of the resources the aquaculture park has to offer.
Farming oysters costs more than harvesting naturally grown oysters, since the farmers start from seed and must tend their crops until they are harvested, but hopefully that will change, one farmer said.
Matthew Mayfield, co-owner of Eagle Point Oyster Co. in Ocean Springs, said oysters shouldn’t be cost-prohibitive, especially in their native Mississippi.
“I don’t think they should be in such a narrow lane or fancy food,” Mayfield said. “I really don’t think you should have to save up for your budget to accommodate a night of eating oysters.”
But off-bottom oyster farming is costly, making it more expensive for the consumer. Mayfield hopes the industry will keep growing, so oysters will be plentiful enough to meet the demand.
“We’ve got to get out there and grow a bunch,” he said. “We’ve got to get the price down.”
Mississippi oysters enjoy a wealth of nutrients that flow into the Gulf from rivers and streams, including the Pascagoula and Tchoutacabouffa Rivers. Mayfield, whose family has lived on the Coast for generations, said the location is just right for growing the perfect oyster.
“We’re in the center of the Gulf — it’s a sweet spot,” Mayfield said. “You’ve got this gumbo of phytoplankton and other nutrients that oysters just love. I don’t think you’ll find a better oyster anywhere.”
The introduction of the oyster farming program — a year before the 2019 Bonnet Carre spillway disaster nearly decimated the Mississippi oyster population — was serendipitous, according to Rick Burris, chief scientific officer with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Oysters in the wild are making a comeback now that their natural habitat is coming back to life, he said.
MDMR operates the farming program, but multiple agencies contribute to the program with their research, training and other offerings that enable Mississippi oyster farmers to get the most out their harvests.
“We train them with what they need, and work with USM and Auburn and other universities to provide them with seed oysters in the beginning,” Burris said.
Once the farmers have their crops up and running, they are able to operate on their own. The farmed oysters are triploid, and do not reproduce, which means they have to start with fresh seed from local hatcheries, Burris said.
Russell Grice, an aquaculture business specialist and administrator of instructional outreach programs with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Auburn University, also works with the oyster farming program. He works with Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, NOAA Fisheries, and other universities and government agencies to develop programming and business best practices for the program.
He said the Mississippi-raised oyster is special, with a unique flavor found only on the Gulf Coast.
“Mississippi is known for having a really mild oyster as far as the salinity, but the nutrients in the northern Gulf are so abundant, that they grow fast and they grow with that uniqueness that you can’t miss,” Grice said.
