Oyster cultivation dates at least to the Roman Republic when, according to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 AD), Sergius Orata pioneered techniques and practices, versions of which are still used. In 2022, China produced 85% of the world’s cultivated oysters and consumed most of that itself. Japan and South Korea produced around 8%; the United States, France and Canada combined produced 6%. Wild oyster harvesting accounts for only 1% of production globally, as wild oysters have been overharvested to near extinction. The colonial New England overharvest of wild oysters led to the first fishing laws to attempt to stabilise and replenish the population. Just before the American Revolution, the wild oyster population of Wellfleet (then known as Billingsgate) collapsed from overharvesting and the consequent exposure of the sea bed, which was too soft for spat to attach to. Residents began experimenting with cultivation, ‘transplanting’ oysters from other areas. Although Thoreau wrote in 1865 that he had been told all the oyster shops and stands in Massachusetts were supplied entirely by Wellfleet, this was perhaps an overstatement. In 1876, the town instituted a grant system which has fluctuated over the years: 30 acres in 1889 grew to 2,400 by 1924. Today, there are 232 acres across 160 grants farmed by 250-300 shellfishers. Oystering is second only to tourism in its contribution to the local economy. These two sectors were developed by Lorenzo Dow Baker, a native Wellfleetian who made his fortune importing bananas. In 1886, he built the Chequassett Inn on Mercantile Wharf and in 1905 added a shed to the side of the building, a laboratory for marine biologist David Belding, whose research is the basis of modern aquaculture. 7 contested ground The waterscape of oyster farming is a hybrid, often contested, space: partly wild, partly highly-managed farm. On parts of the eastern seaboard of the United States, tensions occasionally arise between oyster farmers and recreational boaters, who complain that the farms limit access to nature. Is the water for work or play? ‘Is it meant to be devoid of ‘eyesores’ so people can look onto a smooth, glassy surface from their decks or yachts? Some people would say all of the above, that it’s all possible, but areas where those demands overlap are where the conflicts tend to erupt.’ 8 There is an element of class conflict to these disagreements, which pit year-round residents who make their living by working the ocean against monied summer residents who view the ocean as a place of leisure and sport. This echoes objections to wind farms raised by some influential Cape Cod homeowners who claim that sullied views will harm property values. In Wellfleet, tensions have also arisen among the town, shellfish farmers and the Federal government. Here, the conflict is over dredging the mooring basin in the harbour, where a number of oyster grants are located. The harbour was last dredged in 1957 and has accumulated up to 12 feet of silt since, dramatically reducing the number of usable moorings and limiting access during low tide when pleasure boats sit in the mud. The US Army Corps of Engineers required that the town undertake costly mitigation measures and, as a condition of the dredging permit, to establish a wild oyster habitat restoration project in Blackfish Creek, meant to offset loss of fish habitat they believed dredging would cause. Oystermen questioned the viability of regrowing oysters in the planned restoration area and objected to the closure of Blackfish Creek to harvesting during the project. The ‘black custard’ from the mooring basin is starting to flow toward the oyster grants in the harbour, putting at risk the practice of bottom culture there. 9 The debate, which began in about 2010, remains unresolved.
New York Public Library
Oyster cart, Manhattan, 1904. At the turn of the century oysters were ubiquitous in New York City; enjoyed by the wealthy and poor alike. Oystering in Wellfleet has been a central aspect of the town’s identity since at least the nineteenth century, when, because of advances in food preservation and shipping, one could find Wellfleets on menus across the country. During the height of the so-called oyster craze – when the abundance of oysters on the market made them half the cost of beef and they were sold from the best restaurants to street carts and every saloon in between, the New York Gilded Age financier, Diamond Jim Brady, ate an oyster at Delmonico’s and complained that he had not been served the Wellfleets he had ordered. 6
Wellfleet Marine Corporation
Cape Cod Wave
above: the Wellfleet mooring basin at high tide, and at low tide.
8 Puniewska, Magdalena. ‘Farmer, the World May Not Be Your Oyster’. Hakai, 17 January 2023. https://hakaimagazine.com 9 Pollack, Sam. ‘Wellfleet Backs Out of Dredging Mitigation Agreement’. The Provincetown Independent , 30 August 2023
6-7 New England Historical Society
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on site review 49 :: shorelines
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