4/21/2019

date: April 21, 2019

time: 0600

air temp: 55 F

water temp: 41 F

tide: low, -1.4'

conditions: dense fog, calm.

notes: It's Easter Sunday, and just my luck that there would be an early morning circle of people gathered at the town wharf to welcome the holiday in true Maine style - by the sea. I guess I disrupted their worship in true Maine style as well - by unloading a mountain of oyster gear onto the wharf in front of them, and then proceeding to load up my little aluminum skiff and stall and sputter my way across the harbor and out to the farm while they tried to sing over my racket. *face palm.* But after my challenging first attempt at raising the farm, I couldn't let a holiday keep me from taking advantage of the nice low time and the calm conditions this morning provided.

The rest of last year's oyster babies, some of which are now in the 1-1.5 inch range (holy fast growing babies!) came up and got spread out into floating bags.

Chaos ensues. I'm still new enough to oyster farming that sometimes I just have to dive into projects like farm raising without much of a plan, because I don't yet have the experience to be able to anticipate exactly how things should go.

And, before the tide came in too much, I was able to grab most of the rest of my bigger oysters from the previous year and get them spread out and floating as well. By this point in the day, the weather cleared up and brightened up a bit, which was nice.

Yikes. Turns out oysters take up more space as they get bigger! At this point I was feeling grateful that I had the foresight last fall to apply for three more small experimental -type leases from the Maine Department of Marine Resources (LPAs, they are called - limited purpose aquaculture). It's time for expansion!