More Oysters... Barges and Mud!

The oysters farmers' day is very much governed
by the daily tides...
It's morning and the tide is  coming in...
At Lemon Tree Passage.

It creeps in quietly and covers up all the mud...


The barges can be pulled in close
and loaded or unloaded.
Clive has already been out very early and picked up crates
of oysters for cleaning and sorting and grading and counting...
Into baskets with different size holes for different size oysters.
 
The crates continually grow barnacles.
These are chipped and banged off to keep
them clean and to allow the water to freely flow
to the oysters inside.

It's quite a job as you can see by these crates.
I learned that the barnacles grow when the crates are
in shallower water.


A clean basket... There are twenty
smallish oysters in here
ready to put back in the sea to grow bigger.
These Pacific oysters take
6-18 months to grow from hatchery
size to grunde which is more than 120ml.
Rock oysters take 3 years to achieve the same growth.


A bird's eye view!
When the oysters are big enough and before they are sold,
the over catch is cleaned off, they are counted into nets or baskets
and put on an 'Open Harvest Lease' for three weeks
to clean them up.
They look rough ugly and dirty but after three
weeks in rough seas they come in spotless
and don't need any cleaning or washing and meet
the fisheries harvest criteria.


It's high tide... the barge is in and Raewyn
is starting to load the baskets ready to take
back out to the lease.

I'm going for a ride... to have a look.
Clive is at the helm... giving the motor a bit of a tweek...


And off we go... It's not a dry ride!


This is a 'Restricted Harvesting Oyster Lease'
There are metal 'ropes' hung from posts dug into the sea bed.
The baskets have clips on them...
Designed by Clive who markets them...
They clip easily on and off the ropes.
There is the usual sea 'pollution' here...
So oysters from this lease that are ready for the market
need to be 'depurised' which is three weeks
in open rough seas or go through a
depurising tank with ultra violet light.


Here it's easy to see the baskets hanging on the ropes.
These oysters are in the last stages of fattening.
They are hung so that they are out of the water at low tide.
This gets the oysters used to being out of the water
and ready for the market where they last up to five days
out of water and stay alive and fresh.


A Pelican keeps watch...
Any to eat?


This is their neighbour Peter...
He is lifting crates, loading them on his barge...


And taking them back to his shed.
They are ready for market and will be sold to the local
fisheries or privately sourced markets.
There is a huge demand for oysters in Australia
so there is a ready market for all shapes and sizes.


When we get back the tide has gone out again...
So it's a wade through the mud to get to shore.


It's thick and squelchy


But no other way...

Thank goodness for big gumboots.

 
And it's back to more oysters
which Raewyn is an expert at opening...

And a pot full for dinner.

Oyster Farming... At Lemon Tree Passage

This is my friend Raewyn who I went to visit.
She and her husband Clive, who is an oyster farming consultant...
Were oyster farmers in Russell, Bay Of Islands, New Zealand...
And expanded to Australia

 
This is the overall Port Stephens area...
It's a big harbour...


Tilligerry Creek is part of the bigger harbour.
The star * marks where they are...
The little orange house is where the camping ground
that I stayed in is situated.

It was a short 5 minute walk along this road
to Raewyn and Clive's oyster processing sheds and
water access and where they live.

Their's is the first property...

Other oyster farms continue along the road to the end.


Raewyn and Clive hard at work.
Their life is governed by the tides...
When they can go out and lift the oyster
baskets and when they can put them back.
This is the grading table.
The oysters get covered in what is known as
'Over Catch' the wild spat oysters.
This needs to be scrapped off with a very sharp knife,
they are then graded into sizes to either sell or go back in the
water to grow some more.


These are how Raewyn and Clive buy their
oysters from the hatchery.
They can be bought at any size but these
 are 4ml to be put into baskets with 3ml holes.
The hatchery sources oysters to breed from
that are big, a good shape and have a deep cup.
They are put into warm water and spat at about 36 degrees.
They spurt eggs and sperm into the water
and join together in the water to form an 'Iyed Lave'
similar to a small tadpole.
They swim around for up to ten days...
They are all males who change to females.
They have a sucker foot that sucks onto a piece of fine
sediment about the size of a grain of icing sugar.
Then they don't move or swim any more.
They just sit and grow bigger.
In the hatchery they are fed plankton which varies
according to the size of the oyster...
And some grows shell, some grows meat.


They are grown to various sizes for various markets
and all have different names.
Clubs... Are the smallest size 32-42ml
Bistro - the next size 42-50ml
Buffet - 50-65ml (the pics above)
Standard - 65-70ml
Large 70-90ml
Jumbo 90-120ml
Grunde - over 120ml


These are standard...



These are Grunde - compare them with Raewyn's hand!


And this is the treasure hidden inside the muddy shells...


This crate is cleaned and graded ready to go back into mesh
baskets and into the water again.
Ohh look... There is one opened for me to eat!


I dont' need to be offered them twice... I love them.


Yum, yum... Any more?


Raewyn opened these for dinner.
About 4-5 dozen in this pot.
She dried them on paper towels,
rolled them in rice flour and cooked...
For a few minutes only... Delicious.
But I still like them raw best, straight out of the shell.





















 

Weekend In Port Stephens

Last weekend I went to visit some friends
who live at Lemon Tree Passage
in Port Stephens.
I got the faithful L90 from Palm Beach
to Central Station...

Then  another bus that left from Bay 14 along this walkway
To a place called Salt Ash, which was the nearest
stop to where my friends live.

 

It's not far on the map to Port Sephens...
But the bus took nearly 3 hours.


I stayed here... In this little cabin at the Koala Shores
camping ground. It was very nice, lots of trees
and beautifully maintained.


This was the sunrise out my window - with a screen on!


The wharf where I managed to get connection
to make phone calls.


There was a cafe with excellent coffee but no food
but one day there was fresh banana & raspberry cake.
It was yummy.


The pool was tempting... But too cold.


One of the interesting things
was the green matting on the grass.
Vehicles parked so it became their outdoor space.
There were big drains set into the grass...
Must be for when there is heavy rain.


The weather was beautiful which made my stay very pleasant.


The other interesting thing... Most people travel in
caravans. I saw very few motor homes.
There were a few very small rented vans
and no house buses...
Certainly not old ones like mine.


These are Ibis... That wandered the area.


At the edge of the camp ground is Tilligerry Creek.
It's a very wide 'creek', quite tidal and
where there are a lot of oyster farms.
More about those tomorrow.


There is a board walk that goes a long way round the shore
or at low tide can walk around the sand.


Lots of boats of various sizes moored...


Lovely homes amongst the trees...


And dinghy's to go fishing.
I really enjoyed my stay there.