Beyond this point, one can make out a handful of people bent over and moving around a grid of cylinders: stacks of oyster hats, plastic convex discs coated in a thin layer of concrete. These surfaces attract oyster larvae which, once they attach with their single feet, are called spat . Farmers move older oysters into mesh bags, keeping them safe from predators such as crabs and sea stars, while allowing them to feed on phytoplankton and algae, which in turn have fed on phosphorus and nitrogen flowing from the estuaries. The powerful twice-daily tide in the harbour, a difference of up to 11 feet from high to low, makes this ideal ground for oyster aquaculture. The massive tidal change brings in ample nutrients, while the low tide exposes the oysters to air, which strengthens them. As the oysters continue to grow, up to three years before going to market, some farmers let them sit on the bottom, while others place them in plastic mesh trays propped up on rebar legs. The shell shape and, some say, the taste of the meat will be different depending on whether they have been bottom- or off bottom-cultured. The town of Wellfleet administers about one hundred sixty oyster grants — state-issued leases of a specific plot of sea bottom — clustered near the estuaries. The oysters farmed there are exclusively the Eastern Oyster ( Crassostrea virginicus ), one of five species farmed in North America, the seeds for which come from any one of five hatcheries in Massachusetts. Each species has a distinct flavour profile, but the oyster you eat will have a taste specific to the microclimate in which it was grown. Salinity, water temperature, algae and plankton, tidal flow and mineral content all contribute to texture and flavour. The meat of an oyster is sweetened by cold water, which has the effect of slowing down the oyster’s metabolism, which increases glycogen stores. With exposure to air during twice daily low tides, the meat firms up as oysters hold their shells shut for a few hours at a time. 1 Generally, a Wellfleet oyster has a high degree of marine brininess because of the dearth of freshwater so far out on the Cape. It has a sweet, seaweedy finish that lacks the minerality of other New England oysters because the Cape’s sandy soils are lower in mineral content.
Island Creek Oysters
Wellfleet Shellfish Company
James Moses
Wellfleet Shellfish Company
An oyster hat with spat, the very beginning of a cultivated oyster — a thin calcite attachment. In contrast, wild oysters grow one generation layered on top of the previous one; older oysters provide a hard surface for the spat to attach to. Cultivated
oysters, growing on oyster hats clearly do not form deep reefs, contained as they are in the cage and mesh system of cultivation. above: a proto-reef.
top: oyster hats on rebar stands at low tide. middle: mesh trays on rebar stands at a higher tide. At high tide, the hats, trays and stands are lost to sight. above: a perfect Wellfleet oyster.
1 ‘The Wellfleet Oyster’. The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, no date, author unknown. https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow- food/wellfleet-oyster/. Accessed 26 July 2026
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on site review 49 :: shorelines
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