Process
Firstly our brood stock of both the pacific and native oysters are taken to a hatchery just up the road to be used to make new oysters.
On arrival at the hatchery, the oyster are checked and sorted into trays.
The oysters are warmed up in the hatchery to fool them into thinking it is an early summer and they are fed cultivated algae and this will bring on spawning.
After they have spawned the eyed larvae are free swimming for 12 days to look for a home to settle in. At this stage they are taken out and put into the upwelling buckets with crushed oyster shell to settle in.
After they have settled out after the 12 days they are moved from the buckets and placed into ongoing tanks, when they reach two millimetres they are cooled down sea temperature and returned to us. On arrival back at the farm the small oysters are placed into bags.
Over the next couple of years they are graded out into bigger boxes as they grow. After this time the oysters are ready to sell.
