All the Oyster Ladies Please Stand Up

I don't know why the oyster industry is dominated by men. Perhaps it's the manual labor, the mud, the "ick" factor  … whatever it is, it's time the oyster chicas had their say. March is Women's History Month and as we say goodbye to the worst month of weather ever, there's no better time to celebrate a few of the women who are making their mark on oyster culture.  

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ERIN BYERS MURRAY
Author, Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm
Journalist & Editor

I've written before that I have a girl crush on Erin Byers Murray, author of Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm. A few years ago, Erin took a giant leap of faith, quit her fabulous job at Daily Candy, and froze her way through a year at Island Creek Oyster Farm in Duxbury, MA. Shucked is an in-depth, first-hand account of what it's like to slog it out on the oyster fields, in the mud, in the cold. Her book is raw, funny … and she isn't afraid to let it all hang out. Dozens of women work everyday on oyster farms across America. Shucked gives those women (and men) the credit they deserve. 


When I reached out to Erin for this post, she wrote back (like all cool chicks do) and said she'd be glad to help. Here's an excerpt from my interview:

What was your favorite part of oyster farming?

During the summers, I was in charge of the oyster seed, which in and of itself was a grueling job since it meant lifting 50-pound boxes of seed out of the water, dumping the seed into various containers and cleaning it by hand, then grading it by size. But, the task of grading itself was so satisfying - watching the oyster seed progress from week to week gave me an appreciation for just how much energy goes into creating consistent oysters. The task also helped me slow down, put my hands in the water and focus on the work at hand. Now that I'm back behind a desk, I would give anything to spend a day grading oyster seed. Another favorite activity was hand-picking oysters out on the lease on a low, low tide. This usually happened at dawn or dusk and I loved being out in the middle of the bay in the early hours, watching the world wake up around us. 

Reading your book, I could feel how hard the work was. I think MY muscles hurt at times. While men, in general, may be more suited to some of the most physical parts of oyster farming, in what ways are women more suited for the work?

I think, in most instances, I found that the women on the farm worked very efficiently. The men did, too, but often, the women would remain focused on the task and on keeping the workflow of the farm on pace. The women I worked with took a lot of pride in how they sorted the oysters, how efficiently they could cull, and how their work reflected on the greater team. I think Island Creek Oyster that farmer/founder Skip Bennett intentionally hired women for that reason -- we were great motivators for some of the guys on the team. 

Erin is currently the managing editor of Nashville Lifestyles and is a freelance writer for several national publications. She is also writing a cookbook with chef Jeremy Sewall (Island Creek Oyster Bar). Look for it in October 2014. You can purchase Shucked now.

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KATE ORFF
Founder, SCAPE
Assistant Professor, Columbia University

Kate Orff may be the most notable oyster person you may have never heard of. Orff, founder of SCAPE, proposes using the innate properties of oysters to solve some tough problems. SCAPE, an environmental landscape architecture firm based in NYC, pioneered the idea of oystertecture - using oysters to protect shore lines AND clean the water. In its simplest interpretation, she wants to build artificial oyster reefs in the New York Harbor to clean the water, lessen the wave action during severe storms, protect the coastline, and, in a long term plan, re-create the oyster bounty that once proliferated New York City. Worldwide, coastal countries are taking note of her progress. Leave it to oysters, and girl power, to someday save NYC. 

Check out her talk about oystertecture at the TED Conference: 

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DR. KIRSTEN BENKENDORFF
Mollusk Researcher, Southern Cross University
Vice President, Australasian Malacological Society

Dr. Kirsten Benkendorff
Researcher, Southern Cross University

Dr. Kirsten Benkendorff thinks oysters can one day save human lives. Her ground-breaking research includes developing ways to reduce disease in oyster aquaculture, using oysters to predict the effect of global climate change, and most exciting to me, extracting anti-cancer agents from mollusks. Dr. Benkendorff's research has found that the oysters produce chemical compounds as defense mechanisms against marine pathogens. (Who knows what kind of crap filter through oysters everyday?!) These compounds may one day be used to fight cancer in you or in me. In 2011, she received the prestigious Dorothy Hill Award from the Australian Academy of Science for her research on anti-cancer extracts from Australian whelks. She currently teaches at in the School of Environmental Science at Southern Cross University in Lismore, Australia.

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TRY OYSTER WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION
Banjul, The Gambia, West Africa

Women work together in The Gambia to raise and harvest oysters

for sale in the local market. Their techniques not only help themselves,

they are helping save the environment.

Oysters are helping some women of The Gambia, West Africa, find a way out of poverty and into financial independence. I get goosebumps every time I think about this program.  TRY Oyster Women's Association (http://try-oysters.com) started in 2007 with 40 women in a single village; they have now grown to more than 500 women in 15 villages around The Gambia capital, Banjul. Women have been harvesting oysters (Crassostrea tulipa) for decades in the mangroves near Tanbi National Park. Eager to find ways to be less destructive to the mangroves and to increase production, the West African government and international groups funded several projects to find the best ways to grow oysters. First, they started with rack systems and then moved to the hanging method.

Want to get involved? TRY is always seeking people to work with the women at harvesting sites and to teach basic business skills. For more information, call 220.991.1162 or email tryoysters@gmail.com. You can also donate money at  http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/gambian-women-become-entrepreneurs/

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KAHREN DOWCETT
Board Member, World Oyster Society
Director, International Oyster Symposium

Kahren Dowcett
World Oyster Society

Kahren Dowcett founded the Living Arts Institute to "spotlight social and environmental topics highly relevant but not so visible nor in mainstream public discourse." Lucky for us, her current cause is oysters. The Living Arts Institute has created a unique way to educate the public about oysters. Cirque de Sea: An Oyster Tale Extraordinare is a stage play featuring Sammy the Spat; Oyster Cabaret is a dinner theater; and Oysters to the Rescue is an education program geared toward middle school students. All of these programs will be featured at the first ever Cape Cod Week (Oct. 18 - Oct. 15, 2014) - a week-long celebration of oysters beginning with the Wellfleet OysterFest and ending with the Bi-Valve Beach Bake and Bonfire at the Sea Crest Hotel. The Living Arts Institute is also the official producer of the International Oyster Symposium, a global event supported by the World Oyster Society. The 2015 event is being held for the first time in the United States. Dowcett is the only female officer on the executive or steering committees for the World Oyster Society, and now she's in charge of its most high profile event. 

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OYSTER WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINES

In 2009, Tommy Leggett, a Virginia oysterman, conducted an informal survey of his contacts on the East Coast, to try and determine how many oyster farmers were women, excluding those who work in hatcheries, sorters, shuckers and researchers. Here's a quick glance at his results:

There are more than 1,000 small clam and oyster farms on the East Coast 

• Maine has 5 women oyster farmers 
• Massachusetts has 6 women oyster farmers
• Connecticut has 3 women oyster farmers 
• New York has 4 women oyster farmers 
• New Jersey has 1 woman oyster farmer 
• Virginia has 2 women oyster farmers 
• North Carolina has 3 women oyster farms

I know this number has grown by a few but the story is the same. Fortunately, women who are looking to get into the oyster growing business have several role models to look to. In fact, some of the best oyster people in the country are women, including:

• Barbara Scully, Glidden Point. A Canadian-based TV producer I spoke to said when offered to make a show about oysters, she declined, saying it would get in the way of the work. 

• Barbara Austin, Wild Wellfleets. A 30+ year veteran who the weathered oystermen of the area call "a legend."

• Abigail Carroll, Nonesuch Oysters. A relative newcomer to oyster farming, Ms. Carroll is innovating, growing slowly, taking her time, and finding out what works.   

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KERSTIN WASSON

Adjunct Associate Professor, USCS

Research Coordinator, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

Kerstin Wasson is not afraid of the mud, or the cold, or the looming task of saving oysters one at a time. Kerstin and her team of researchers are nursing wild Olympia oysters from the brink of extinction. Olympia oysters were plentiful until the 1920s. Middens (oyster shell piles) found in the area date back at least 7,000 years. Kerstin, through her work with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, hopes to bring back the Olympia oyster to it's previous levels. The Elkhorn Slough is a critical piece of the Olympia oyster because it connects the oyster beds in San Francisco to Mugu Lagoon. Using shell necklaces (oyster shells tied onto strings) and reef balls (oyster shells attached to domed shaped cement blocks), her team is hoping to find slowly bring back the native Olympia population. It's tedious work. Some areas of the Elkhorn Slough estuary have less than 100 Olympia oysters. The threat of extinction is real every day. 

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VOICES FROM THE PAST
"The energy of these women is prodigious. There are children, cattle, a vegetable garden and everything else to see to before and after eight hours of oystering … Yet there is hardly a women who doesn't find time to grow flowers." - Eleanor Clark

Throughout history, it has always been the stories of love, suffering, and lessons that have bonded women. In 1964, Eleanor Clark wrote The Oysters of Locmariaquer, a subtle, romantic, jarring, beautiful book about the small town of Locmariaquer on the Breton Coast of France that grew Belon oysters. At the time, women outnumbered men ten to one. Clark artistically wove the stories of these oyster women with the fabric of the town and the oysters themselves. 

(Sadly, the native Belon population in Locmariaquer was wiped out in the 1970s. Oysters now grown in the area are Japanese Gigas.) 

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Happy Women's History Month. To all my oyster girls out there, I hope you find time to grow flowers.