Virginia remains the nationwide leader in hard clam production and, on the East Coast, a top oyster growing state, according to an annual survey of shellfish aquaculture by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Last year, farmers sold nearly $56 million in oysters and clams. That's a 14% increase in revenue from 2013 for clam growers and a whopping 33% for oyster farmers. Captain Danny Crabbe owns Fat and Happy Oyster Company in Ophelia on the western shore of the bay. Crabbe attributes the increasing demand for Virginia oysters to troubled waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Louisianna, Mississippi, and Texas, they are having trouble with their oysters right now. First time in probably 25, 30 years that oysters from Virginia are being shipped to Louisianna.”
He was busy getting a barge ready to expand his operation.
“I'm spending a whole lot of money working towards making it a bigger operation so I can build it up and getting it going good and sell it to some aspiring young person.”
Despite low tides and an extreme winter, Crabbe and other oystermen remain optimistic about the industry.
