Vineyard Sound was bathtub calm as brothers Greg and Dan Martino worked their two-acre oyster farm, about 100 yards off Eastville Beach, on a recent sunny morning.
Standing on a homemade plywood platform, they inspected the inaugural crop of Cottage City oysters, one by one, looking for predators — namely jingle shells and oyster drillers. In addition to inspecting their crop, they were giving the adolescent oysters more room to grow, reducing the number in each bag, and putting them back in clean bags that would allow better nutrient flow.
“This is the definition of a beautiful day,” Dan said. “Yesterday, it was blowing 15 knots. I think as you spend more time on the water, your definition of good weather declines. Fifteen knots used to be bad news. Now it’s just another day at the office.”
The tranquility of the morning was in sharp contrast to the long and at times tumultuous approval process for Cottage City Oysters. The Martinos’ first effort to start an oyster farm in the Lagoon was rejected by Oak Bluffs selectmen over concerns it would interfere with recreation. Their next attempt began with the approval of the Oak Bluffs shellfish committee and shellfish constable Dave Grunden. Then they had to pass through a permitting gauntlet that included the Division of Marine Fisheries, the Coast Guard, the state Archeological Resources Board, Native American tribes, the Army Corps of Engineers, and finally, Oak Bluffs selectmen. A small but vociferous group of seasonal Eastville Beach residents turned up to selectmen’s meetings to fight the project, voicing concerns about aesthetics, boater safety, and oyster cages washing ashore during the inevitable nor’easters. The group eventually hired a Boston law firm that sued the town for a lack of transparency in the permitting process, and for not properly vetting the project.
But town selectmen publicly backed the Martinos, and gave final approval to a three-year license in September 2014. Speaking for the majority, then chairman Greg Coogan said, “In all of this, we’re trying to promote a sustainable, year-round business. We need more of that in Oak Bluffs. It’s a struggle for all of us who live here. The Martinos have invested a lot of time and money, and there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed. I think they’ve earned a chance to try. I’ll be sailing by there all the time. If they’re not doing a good job, they’ll hear from me, believe me.”
Shellfish constable Dave Grunden also put the brothers on notice. “If they don’t do what they proposed, I will shut them down immediately,” he told selectmen and the disgruntled opponents.
A year later, it appears Mr. Grunden was true to his word. “Dave has made a lot of surprise inspections,” Dan said, pouring another bag of oysters on the work table. “That’s good. If something’s not right, we want to know.”
“We’ve had a lot of support from the community,” Greg said. “The town has really embraced this. It would have been easy to buckle to the uproar, and they didn’t.”
Uncharted waters
The Martinos are farming aqua incognita — not only is their oyster farm the first in Oak Bluffs, it’s also the only oyster farm on the Island sited on open ocean. Much could have gone wrong already, but so far, results have been encouraging. Test cages stayed in place during this year’s epic winter. The first nor’easter of this fall, an exceptionally long one, didn’t wash any cages ashore on Eastville Beach.
The cages have also had a serendipitous effect. By providing structure on an ocean bottom that is considered “dead,” a classification required by the state to allow oyster cages in the first place, they have brought new life. On their inspection dives, the Martinos have seen a growing diversity of wildlife around the cages. “The cages create a coral reef effect,” Greg said. “There was a big school of butterfish hanging out the last time we were here.”
“We’ve seen some very big stripers cruising around,” Dan said. “The fishermen are very happy. They tell us they haven’t seen fish in this area for a while.”
So far, the oysters seem to be flourishing as well. “They’re saltier than Katama oysters, which I like,” Dan said. “The water here is colder and there’s more current, so they get more nutrients. They’ve grown much faster than we expected.”
Although they’re at least seven months from going to market, Cottage City oysters already have an international following of sorts. “There’s a growing number of oyster aficionados and oyster bars springing up all over; it’s amazing,” Greg said. “We had a guy kayak out to us this summer. He’s from England, and he’s been following our story online. He already wanted to put in an order for next year.”
“He said he’d bring the beer out to us if we provided the oysters,” Greg said, laughing. “We said, sure, we’ll be here.”
Plowing ahead
“One of these can drill through an oyster shell in eight hours,” Greg said, holding up the thimble-size, conch-like oyster driller.
Dan held up a small oyster shell up to the sun, illuminating the telltale pinprick hole. “One of them had a good dinner,” he said, tossing the shell into the drink.
Although they sound and look like native Island fishermen, Dan, 33, and Greg, 29, grew up in Houston, Texas. They had never heard of Martha’s Vineyard, and their contact with the ocean was limited to family vacations to Galveston, Texas, which they recall with a distinct lack of fondness. Dan, also now the owner of Martha’s Vineyard Productions, was working for Plum TV in Colorado when in 2007, he had the choice of transferring to the Vineyard or the Hamptons. “I knew I didn’t want to go to the Hamptons, so I came here,” he said. “I fell in love with this place right away.”
Greg was working in finance at General Electric in Irving, Texas, but his older brother was relentless about trying to convince him to come to the Island. “All Dan could talk about was what a great place this is, and that I had to get here. I figured I could work nine to five or go work with my brother in this place he wouldn’t shut up about,” he said. Greg heard about a DJ job at WMVY, and even though he had no radio experience, he sent in an audition tape, and got the job.
A few years and many odd jobs later, both brothers have developed a deep connection the Island, and both have started families here. Dan and his wife Laura had their first child four months ago. Greg met his wife Cristina here four years ago, and they married on the Island this summer.
“It’s not just the natural beauty of this place, which is incredible,” Greg said. “It’s a different way, the way of life here. You either get it or you don’t.”
Go with the flow
“I caught the oyster bug working for Jack Blake,” Dan said, referring to his time working for the Sweet Neck Farm owner. “He’s been incredibly generous with his knowledge and his time. He invented a new upweller, and just gave us the plans for free. He also taught us how to invent things. You have to learn to invent things if you’re going to do this. That’s part of what I love about it.”
“We built this platform this winter,” Greg said. “We had to build it outside, so were working in pretty deep snow.”
“There’s so many upsides to this business,” Dan said. “It’s a sustainable crop that’s good for the environment — how often do you see that? A single oyster filters 50 gallons of water a day, and converts nitrogen into carbon and protein.”
“It can also create year-round jobs for the local economy,” Greg said. “Hopefully, we’ll get to a place soon where we have to hire some help.”
“I’d love to hire some high school kids and open their eyes to this, just like Jack did for me,” Dan said.
The nascent business of oyster farming has yet to breed cutthroat competition, in Dan’s estimation. “We’re a small community, so we share information,” he said. “We’re in touch with guys farming the Chesapeake and all over the East Coast; everybody shares information. You get out of it what you put into it.”
Social media, in particular Instagram, is the preferred method of communication among oyster farmers. “When somebody designs a new tumbler, a picture on Instagram is a lot better than a tweet,” Dan said. “We don’t have much use for Twitter.”
Greg, the de facto chief financial officer of Cottage City Oysters, has a degree in finance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. “I’m always working on Excel spreadsheets,” he said. “We’re constantly looking at the numbers.”
“You wear every hat you’ve ever worn to make this business work,” Dan said.
Greg politely declines to say how much the brothers have invested in Cottage City Oysters so far. Since they will not be able to harvest their first crop until next spring, the operation will be running at a deficit for some time.
“Until next summer, we’re throwing our money in the ocean,” Dan said.
“The big variable is, Are they going to grow or not?” Greg said. “So far, it’s working.”
But as any farmer knows, a lot can go wrong in seven months, especially when you’re breaking new ground.
Jack Blake told The Times he has complete confidence in the brothers Marino. “I’d put my money on them,” he said. “They’ve done their homework, they work hard, and they started small, which is smart. I love seeing young guys getting into this business. It’s good for the Island. I wish them all the best.”
