October Oysters

Sorting the 500 oysters, larger ones in the bucket, smaller ones on the left.

Darby and I sort oysters.

A great deal of life enlivens the oyster environment including this worm--we tried to wash them away.

Some of the larger oysters could be eaten now.

Emptying the oyster bag for sorting,

We hauled the oysters out for what may be their last inspection of 2012 as the water temperatures dip into the 60s.  Many of the oysters are getting fairly large now though a fair number remain small so I sorted them into big and little.  I cleaned out the Taylor float--it had a lot of growth including Filamentous algae which I scraped off as best I could.  I then place the larger oysters in a layer on the bottom of the float and put the smaller ones back in the more finely netted insert atop the other oysters.  I only dessicated the oysters and float for about two hours.  I cleaned off as many secondary organisms--mostly the sea grapes--as I could.  There were about two dozen small oysters which had perished.  Then I threw them into the Creek while I shouted Oysters Overboard! 

I moved the float to the shady northern side of the pier in order to try to cut back the algal growth.  With the sun low for the winter it isn't possible to get it very far under the pier but hopefully growth is curtailed in the winter months.