The sold-out screening of A Passion for Oysters at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center — a locally produced film that highlights the restoration efforts of the Chesapeake Bay — illustrated Islanders’ own passion for, as well as the struggles in growing, the bivalves.
Hosted by the Tisbury Waterways, Inc. (TWI), the gathering attracted fishermen, conservationists, cultivators, and those who love to eat oysters (Cottage City Oysters, Tisbury Oyster Company, and Spearpoint Oysters also provided the special treat after the showing).
Sandy Cannon-Brown, a producer and the editor of A Passion for Oysters and Vineyard Haven resident, introduced the film. Cannon-Brown moved to the Island in 2020 from the Chesapeake Bay.
A panel discussion following the film revealed many parallels to the famous bay and the Vineyard’s own waterways.
A Passion for Oysters looks at the combined and sometimes competing interests of restoration efforts in the Chesapeake by those involved in aquaculture and sanctuaries, scientists and environmentalists, and free-range watermen in the Chesapeake Bay.
By 2022, the extensive restoration projects brought about the largest wild harvest in 35 years, and aquaculture increased tenfold.
Still, as the film highlights, the advances are modest compared to oyster’s historic abundance of 15 million bushels harvested in 1884, and the dangers posed by diseases could test progress further.
“Disease, overfishing, and pollution have done their worst, and the oyster still hangs in
there,” as writer Tom Horton is quoted in the film. “Good for the economy, good for the Bay, and good for eating. Well worth saving.”
Emma Green-Beach, executive director and shellfish biologist of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc., moderated the discussion. Panelists included Steve Kirk, coastal program director for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts; Paul Bagnall, recently retired shellfish constable for Edgartown; and Rick Karney, former director of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group from 1976 to 2017; and Cannon-Brown.
Green-Beach began by asking Karney and Bagnall about their experiences before the ecological challenges from disease and pollution started to have a significant impact in the 1990s.
Bagnall said there wasn’t a similar amount of friction between aquaculture and wild harvest factions highlighted in the film, when the Katama Bay oyster farms began in the 1990s. “Prior to 1990, we were able to utilize Oyster Pond, which hadn’t been commercially fished in over fifty years, so there were phenomenal oyster reefs out there. We used that as a seed stock to supplement the wild fishery on Edgartown Great Pond,” he responded.
Unfortunately, in the early 90s, algae blooms on Edgartown Great Pond killed over 90 percent of the shellfish, Bagnall said. Then, just as it was recovering, a disease called Dermo hit, making the comeback even harder.
Karney said that what they are doing on the Vineyard is a microcosm of what you see in the Chesapeake Bay: “Similar to Maryland and Virginia, we have this issue with oyster diseases, Dermo particularly,” he said. “When it first showed up in the early 90s, the pathologist said the intensity of the disease was such that probably 80 percent were going to die before the next season … I recommended to the wild fishermen that we should probably take as many of these as we could then because they are going to die. I caught so much flack. It was kind of like they were going to kill the messenger.”
Kirk spoke about the Nature Conservancy’s program Supporting Oyster, Aquaculture, and Restoration (SOAR) in Massachusetts that was, in part, a Covid relief response. Their efforts here, in partnership with the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, have resulted in the conservancy supporting several growers on the island to relay oysters primarily into Edgartown Great Pond.
They are hoping to build out SOAR as a model. “We are working to establish new sites to build this because, as you saw on the screen, they are doing small work but ultimately are environmentally impactful on our coastal waters and ponds,” Kirk reflected.
One of the essential takeaways in A Passion for Oysters is their important ecological role in cleaning the water of pollutants. As Cannon-Brown says: “Oysters are nature’s little treatment plants. Every oyster can filter up to fifty gallons of water a day.”
Karney, asked by the audience about what they could do to help local shellfishermen, spoke about a shell recycling program, which they provide as a partnership with restaurants.
“You heard from the movie how important it is to have shells in the ponds,” Karney said. “Essentially, dead oysters are the habitat of the next generation. When those shells are removed or harvested and not put back, it’s basically destroying the habitat. To bring the habitat back, we need to put the shells back. We’ve gotten funding through different island foundations, but it’s difficult to keep it funded.”
Green-Beach suggested that one way to help shellfish is to cut down on the use of fertilizers when growing grass. “When it comes to fertilizer runoff for anyone who is near the water, it’s important to have vegetative buffers,” she said. “One great thing is to have a no-mow area closest to the water because those deep roots will help take up that nitrogen before it goes into the ponds.”
Kirk added, “It’s important to point out that the aquaculture industry can deliver some of the same things that wild habitats can. Having more oysters in the water in the farm setting is a good thing, providing habitat for marine life just like it does on a wild reef or bed. Supporting the aquaculture industry is valuable for the economy, making food, and improving the ecosystem.”
Karney left the audience with a key takeaway for us here and globally: “It’s important for everybody to realize that the problem didn’t just start overnight or involve one person, and the solution is going to be the same thing,” he said. “It’s going to involve all of us looking out for the water quality and will probably still take a while. But we all have to be part of the solution.”
The film screening raised $2,419 from ticket sales to benefit Tisbury Waterways Inc.