Off-Bottom Oyster Farms Growing

By Marie Fazio

Baton Rouge Advocate

Just off the coast of Grand Isle, Ryan Anderson, wearing a pair of black waders, hopped out of a skiff and slowly made his way through rows of floating cages, home to more than 100,000 growing oysters.

Last year, Anderson started Little Moon Oyster Ranch, an off-bottom farm in Bayou Rigaud where he cultivates oysters that he says are salty and sweet with a hint of umami, a slightly different flavor profile than those grown wild in the Gulf of Mexico.

His farm is part of a small but growing contingent in south Louisiana, fueled in part by the availability of grant money to entice newcomers to the industry. The number of off-bottom farmers across the state has more than doubled in the past two years, and farmer hopefuls crowd waitlists for leases, a welcomed sign almost two years after Hurricane Ida devastated Grand Isle and decimated oyster farmers' equipment and harvests. ''The industry is definitely expanding at this time,'' said Robert Caballero, an oyster program biologist in the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Unlike conventional oyster farming, where oysters are harvested from water bottoms in the wild, off-bottom farmers grow oysters in cages that float. Surrounded by nutrients at the water's surface, these oysters grow more quickly and are protected from predators.

Beginning in 2020, Louisiana Sea Grant, a federal and state collaboration, allocated $1.8 million to help off-bottom oyster operators expand or start new farms, said Earl Melancon, who runs the Louisiana program.

Before hurricanes Zeta in 2020 and Ida in 2021, there were eight off-bottom oyster farms in Louisiana, and those storms wiped out all of them. Now there are 19, including the eight original, Melancon said. Off-bottom farms, also called alternative oyster culture, help diversify the industry, which is important as the coastal habitat evolves, Melancon said. They're unlikely to replace conventional oyster farming but will supplement the industry with a ''boutique- type product,'' he added.

Grand Isle opened its first aquaculture park about 10 years ago in Caminada Bay, a 25-acre space with eight commercial oyster farm leases. About five years ago, it opened a second, 13 ½acre park in Bayou Rigaud with eight leases, said Weldon Danos, executive director of the Port Commission of Grand Isle.

There's a waitlist for a spot at the parks, he said, driven in part by available money and by oyster farmers looking to move from other places due to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a controversial $2.5 billion coastal restoration project that is predicted to change the salinity of the water in the Barataria Basin and impair oyster farmers and fishers.

To meet the growing demand, the port plans to expand the second park to 25 acres and add eight leases, and might look into establishing a third park, Danos said.

A few years ago, Anderson was explaining to a friend what it takes to raise oysters from tiny larvae to restaurant size, a process that involves shaking the cages to break off any excess growth on the shells and splitting oysters into separate cages as they grow so as not to smother them.

''So you're the oysters' daddy?'' the friend asked.

So Anderson became ''oyster. daddy'' on Instagram, where he posts videos about oysters, including one dispelling the notion that oysters should not be eaten during summer months.

Anderson grew up on an oyster farm in Maryland, where he tonged oysters from rocks along the shore. He spent eight years in New York, working as a restaurant sommelier, before moving to New Orleans and working as the beverage director at the Ace Hotel.

After Ida battered Grand Isle, Anderson was inspired by the show of support for seafood industry workers to start Little Moon Oyster Ranch, a reference to his grandfather's nickname for him and to the cattle farm of his youth.

''Really what you're doing is herding a bunch of oysters,'' he said.

Since Ida, Anderson said, the oxygenation of the water has revitalized the nutrients and significantly accelerated growing time. Now it takes four to six months to grow an oyster to market size; it used to take eight to 10.

In addition to selling to restaurants, Anderson hosts weekly pop-ups at Faubourg Wines and Tell Me Bar, and occasionally at Bud Rips Old 9th Ward Bar and Poor Boys, selling his fare at $2 an oyster, about half the menu price at local restaurants.

On a recent Thursday at Tell Me Bar, Anderson carefully shucked a dozen oysters and arranged them on a platter with sauce made from Ponchatoula strawberries, lemon wedges and horseradish.

''If I can offer this luxury item to the amazing community we have in the city at a lower cost, then absolutely I'm going to do that,'' he said. ''To grow them and then to shuck them for other people is really, really fun.''