Cultivating a new future for Bay's oyster industry
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This article was originally published in November 2010
The Chesapeake Newspaper
Marine scientist A.J. Erskine left the academic world to solve some of the oyster industry’s
real-world problems – creating a healthy sustainable supply of Bay oysters. He now super-
vises an oyster farming operation that supplies two of Virginia’s largest shucking houses,
Cowart Seafood Co. and Bevans Oyster Co. Photo / Dave Harp
Cultivating a new future for Bay’s oyster industry
Editor’s note: This is the second set of ar- thinking ahead,” said Don Webster, an extension
ticles in a three-part series about Maryland agent at the University of Maryland who has been
and Virginia wading into oyster aquaculture. working to promote aquaculture for the last three
decades. “It’s farming, but it’s more like planting
By Rona Kobell an orchard.”
If you want to get into the oyster business, you Jim Wesson, who oversees oyster restoration
need nerves of steel. efforts with the Virginia Marine Resources Com-
Over the last decade, close to a dozen oyster mission, said oyster farmers with a get-rich-quick
farms have cropped up in Maryland and Virginia. mentality will be disappointed. It took Virginia 30
Everything that could go wrong for them has gone years to grow clam farms to a $30 million indus-
wrong. try, and it will take oyster farmers at least as long
One farmer’s oysters were stolen when he put to do the same.
them in an unmarked bed. Another tells of losing “The ones that have been successful, they pay
much of his early crop to cownose rays. Another for things as they grow,” Wesson said.
encountered the parasite Dermo, which wiped out Maryland clam entrepreneur Steve Gordon
thousands of dollars of profits in a single season. said the key to success is persistence. He just won
Still others talked of long waits to acquire the a five-year battle with a neighbor over the right
permits to build their operations, or battles with to lease bottom in Chincoteague Bay. During his
neighbors who were not keen to see oyster floats first year of planting clams, he lost most of his
interrupting their view. crop to hungry rays. Home-improvement projects
But they stuck it out. Today, they are pioneers had to wait as he poured money into upwellers—
in oyster aquaculture, an industry that both Mary- systems that not only protect shellfish from
land and Virginia want to see grow. predators but pump cold water from the bottom,
Getting into the industry isn’t an easy sell, rich with phytoplankton, to feed the young clams.
especially to the Chesapeake Bay’s dwindling Now, the Gordon family’s Worcester County
aqua farm is a showplace for prospective grow-
REPRINT
number of watermen. The wild harvest they
pursue can be unpredictable, but it’s nothing ers, and Gordon is so confident that he’s branch-
compared with the uncertainty of aquaculture, ing out into oysters.
where oyster farmers sink thousands of dollars into “Quite often, in the early years, it’s trial and
a crop they hope will be around next year. error,” he said. “You don’t always get it right the
“That’s probably going to be the most difficult first time.”
thing for some watermen, to go from being a Here are profiles of six companies who seem
harvester who gets up in the morning and takes to be doing it right, and an examination of how
what Mother Nature gave them to someone who is they’ve done it.
2 Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010
The Retiree: Persistence pays off after permit process, early problems
Ernie Nichols
always wanted to
be Uncle Ernie, k
tan
although not neces- Chop
sarily the way he is Po
now. *
to
Ta oun
Ra ma
S
ng d
pp c
Raising his fam-
ier
ah
an
ily in Ellicott City
no
ck
and working in the
spacecraft industry
in Washington, D.C.,
Nichols craved long
weekends on the Shore, catching crabs.
“When I was a kid, at different times,
a neighbor might have a sister who had a
place. Very rarely would it be the same
place. But we always had some place to
chicken-neck.”
Nichols decided that, when he was
ready, he would build that place, so that
it would always be the same place. He
would be Uncle Ernie to his children’s
friends and his neighbors. In 1999, he
bought land along the Big Annemessex
River outside of Crisfield, MD, and built
his dream house. Shortly thereafter, he Ernie Nichols prepares his oyster cages at his dock along the Big Annemessex River in Marion
heard about a program to grow oysters Station, MD. The former space industry executive started growing oysters to help the environ-
for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. ment. Now, it’s a business, and a good one: He sells every oyster he grows. Photo / Dave Harp
The CBF experience proved to Nich-
retired in a couple of years,” Nichols said. oyster in January 2009.
ols that the water provided more than a
place to catch crabs. And two years of But what he didn’t know is that it Over the past few years, Nichols has
state water-testing proved that his river would take three years to obtain the learned what not to do. His first year,
was one of the few nearshore places in necessary permits, a process Nichols he said, he killed 35,000 oysters. Every
the area clean enough to grow oysters describes as “terrible.” It wasn’t until time he opened a bag, there were more
for human consumption. 2007 that his Tangier Sound Oyster dead ones. A grower friend in Virginia
“I knew I could grow oysters. I knew Co.—featuring Uncle Ernie’s Tangier suggested drying out the bags of oysters
they tasted great. I knew we had good Sound Oysters—was legally operating in for a short period of time and then put-
water quality and I knew I was going to be the state of Maryland. He sold his first ting them back in the water. That solved
the problem.
Nichols also learned he couldn’t rely
on his wife, Bridget, for all of the labor.
He hired a couple of biology majors
from Salisbury University to do the
heavy lifting.
Ernie Nich- He doesn’t want to get too big—his
ols harvests goal is to sell 1,000–2,000 oysters a
some of his week. He’s done almost no marketing,
oysters. With but word has spread—Uncle Ernie’s
almost no Tangier Sound Oysters are on the menu
marketing,
he’s man- at Ryleigh’s, Gertrude’s and Woodberry
aged to get Kitchen in Baltimore, and the Henlopen
his crop City Oyster House in Lewes, DE.
to the top No doubt, Nichols owes his success to
tables in persistence. But he is also lucky to have
the region, had a full-time job and retirement income.
including He won’t get rich, but he will stay busy.
Baltimore’s
Woodberry “It’s been said that, once people find
Kitchen. out you have oysters, you sell them all.
Photo / And that’s been true,” he said. “I sell
Dave Harp every oyster I can grow.”
Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010 3
Marinetics’ oyster farm sits along the Choptank River. The white house at the dock holds the upweller. When the oysters are large
enough, they will go into floats that sit on the surface. Photo / Dave Harp
The Fighter: Success required sweet-talking the neighbors, market
After a
sharp right turn
just outside of k
tan
Cambridge, MD, a op
*
Ch
narrow road winds Po
t
Ra oma
Ta oun
down a dirt path
S
ng d
pp c
ier
ah
into what appears to an
no
be an estate worthy ck
of the DuPonts. It
continues on to a
one-time chicken
farm hard by the
banks of the Choptank River.
This is Castle Haven, home of
Marinetics, and birthplace of the
Choptank Sweet oyster. Kevin
McClarren, the company’s manager,
appreciates the natural beauty. His
previous job was growing finfish in a
Massachusetts industrial park. And
before that, he was a laborer for a
brick-laying company, working his way
through college and out of a sometimes-
rough Northeast Philly neighborhood
where, by his own admission, he got Kevin McClarren, right, empties one of the company’s floats. Photo / Dave Harp
into a lot of fistfights.
Growing oysters may be hard work, each year. The company, which began Pennsylvania. Maze had a doctorate
but McClarren said he knows he’s lucky growing its first oysters in 2002, is now in parasitology, and was interested in
to be doing it. And he’s dedicated: On turning a profit. Several restaurants studying the two diseases, MSX and
a recent morning, he apologized for his in Cambridge, Baltimore, Annapolis Dermo, that were destroying the Bay’s
grogginess. He had just undergone an and Norfolk carry Choptank Sweets. native oysters. To fund their research,
endoscopy, and the anesthesia hadn’t Even sweeter for McClarren is that the couple grew some oysters for sale in
completely worn off. His doctor told he now distributes oysters throughout floats, rather than on the bottom.
him not to drive to work, so he took his Philadelphia, including the famous To their surprise, the oysters thrived.
boat instead. Sansom Street Oyster House, one of his The side business turned into the main
Marinetics is Maryland’s largest and favorite watering holes. event, after taking care of a few details.
most successful oyster company, with Marinetics was the brainchild of Marinetics needed permits from
about 10 million oysters in the water, Robert Maze and Laurie Landau,
and sales of about 1 million oysters both graduates of the University of Fighter continues on page 9
4 Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010
Luke Breza, left, and David Chamberlain, right, work at their oyster farm in Snow Hill, MD. Photo / Dave Harp
The Odd Couple: Financier bonds with retired teacher after stopping to talk shop
If it weren’t for to retire early from full-time work, oysters to nearby restaurants as Snow
the oysters, they the Hagerstown native decided to say Hills, in keeping with the tradition of
probably wouldn’t k goodbye to all that. He settled in Easton, naming oysters after the place where
tan
have gotten together. Chop enjoying small-town life, and decided they’re grown. The chefs raved about
David Po to follow his passion and invest in the oysters, which retain that famous
Ta oun
*
to
Chamberlain was a environmentally friendly businesses salty flavor of Chincoteague Bay as
S
Ra ma
ng d
pp c
ier
ah
retired shop teacher an
no
that also had a potential to make money. well as a special mineral taste because
from New York who ck The story might have ended there, they’re growing in Box Iron Creek. In
spent years living except Chamberlain left Greenbackville spring 2008, Breza took the oysters to a
on and tinkering for the Maryland side of the Coastal tasting contest in Providence, RI. When
with a sailboat in Bays. After many years of trial and they finished runner-up, the Maryland
the Hudson River. error with different locations, he began Department of Agriculture issued a
One day, he saw mussels growing under growing oysters in Scotts Landing, in the press release.
his dock and decided he might like to shadow of Snow Hill, on 7 acres of water The firm’s fame expanded when
grow shellfish, too. New York wasn’t column leased from the state. It was there Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley made
keen on the idea, but when he called that Breza discovered him in 2004. it the first stop on a tour of Worcester
Virginia, Chamberlain recalled, “they “Luke went to the aquaculture office. County in 2008. After visiting, O’Malley
said, ‘come on down.’” He soon settled He got a list of every oyster farm in learned that Virginia had a thriving
in Greenbackville, a town whose name Maryland and visited them. There aquaculture industry, while Maryland
was synonymous with oyster-industry weren’t that many,” Chamberlain said. had almost none. That visit solidified the
fortunes from the days when the “And then Luke came back over, and he path to the most significant change in the
railroad hauled Chincoteague oysters to never left.” aquaculture law in 100 years.
Baltimore and Philadelphia. Breza’s infusion of capital, sweat Although it still isn’t easy to obtain
Luke Breza was a brash bond trader equity and business acumen turned what permits, future growers won’t have to
who made his money in the financial was a side business for Chamberlain endure Chamberlain’s five-year odyssey.
districts of Paris, New York and into a full-time, year-round oyster farm. Like Marinetics, Great Eastern grows
London. But with two young children, They called the company Great Eastern
a passion for sailing and enough money Shellfish Co., and began selling the Odd Couple continues on page 8
Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010 5
The Legacies: Shucking houses join forces to create a sustainable local harvest
The Chesapeake’s
shores used to be
thick with oyster-
shucking houses.
They employed tan
k
hundreds of people, hop
C
and had a culture Ra
Po
tom
Ta oun
all of their own. pp ac
S
ah
ng d
an
k*
ier
Men—and it was n oc
mostly men—would
sit around a table
and pry the salty
bivalves out of thick
shells, telling stories
and singing until their shift ended.
After diseases all but destroyed the
wild harvest in the 1980s, most of the
shucking houses closed. Those that
remained had to rely on product from
the Gulf of Mexico, which supplied
most of the oysters in the United States
until recently.
Lake “Lakey” Cowart and Ronald
“Ronnie” Bevans were among the
survivors. Cowart owns Cowart
Seafood Co. in Lottsburg, VA; Bevans’
oyster company is based a few miles
away in Kinsale, VA.
But Cowart and Bevans worried that
much of the Virginia industry was one
Gulf Coast disaster away from losing
its supply. They wondered if there was a
way to raise oysters locally.
The Virginia Seafood Council
seemed headed in that direction. In
2005, the group was experimenting
with Asian oysters that were being con- Cowart’s boat, appropriately named the Fat Spat, takes spat on shell to the company’s
sidered as a replacement for the native leased beds. Photo / Dave Harp
oyster. For the experiment, they needed ideas in the water. Erskine understood
sterile native oysters for comparison. the science of how to breed oysters.
A sterile native oyster can grow much But could he develop a large-scale
faster than a native wild oyster because planting operation for both companies,
it puts all of its energy into growth, and so that eventually they could supply
none into reproduction. And unlike re- themselves?
productive oysters, which are only eaten After Hurricane Katrina, Cowart and
in “R” months because they are runny
Bevans saw no reason not to try. They
from reproduction in the summer, ster-
ile oysters can be eaten all year long. hired Erskine, now 38, to build a joint
Virginia Institute of Marine Science aquaculture operation. Though Cowart
oyster geneticist Standish Allen, who and Bevans maintain their own boats,
invented the sterile oyster, called a leases and shucking operations, they
triploid because it has three sets of share product. The oysters begin life in
chromosomes, provided the stock for a hatchery. A paddle-wheel upweller at
the experiments, one of which was Cowart’s place nurses the oysters until
conducted at Bevans’ Kinsale plant. they are large enough to go on the leased
Through the experiments, the elder beds. Then, workers put the oysters
statesmen of the oyster industry met aboard one of two boats—Cowart’s Fat
one of the new guard—A.J. Erskine, Spat and Bevans’ Barnes Point—and
a Virginia Institute of Marine Science deliver them to the leased beds. They
graduate who eschewed a career in Because they are sterile, Erskine’s oysters
research because he wanted to put his Legacies continues on page 10 are plump, even in July. Photo / Dave Harp
6 Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010
The Marketers:
Cousins unite
area growers to create
a Bay ‘brand’ that’s
hot across the U.S.
In 2002, Rich-
mond resident Travis
Croxton had a great
job at the Federal k
tan
Reserve Bank. His Ch
op
cousin, Ryan Crox- Po
ton, was working as Ra toma
Ta oun
S
ng d
pp c
ah
ier
a freelance writer. an
no
Neither had a notion ck
of becoming an oys- *
ter farmer until their
fathers approached
them with a proposal: The 110-year-old
lease on their grandfather’s vast Middle
Peninsula oyster grounds was about to
expire. Would the boys be interested in
doing something with it?
“It was the last thing on our mind
until they brought it to our attention that
we might lose a bit of history,” Travis
Croxton recalled. “It was just going to be
a hobby.”
It didn’t take the Croxtons long to fig-
ure out they could do more. An epiphany
came while eating at New York’s famous
Grand Central Oyster Bar. The menu
featured about 20 varieties of oysters
from within three miles of each other
in Massachusetts. There was one oyster
from the Bay. It was called the Chesa-
peake Bay oyster.
The Croxtons wondered why Bay oys-
ters couldn’t offer products as different Rappahannock River Oyster Co. manager Anthony Marchetti checks on young oysters
as Wellfleets and Blue Points. To get in in the upweller at Locklies Marina in Topping, VA. Photo / Dave Harp
the game, they knew they had to get the Croxtons’ company in both a new Marchetti, a University of Virginia
attention of the most high-profile chefs. cookbook and on an online travelogue of graduate with strong Rappahannock
So Ryan Croxton called Eric Ripert, the best artisan farmers between Atlanta River ties, to manage their main farm in
host of the PBS show, “Avec Eric,” and and New York. They sent him home with Topping. They have two other farms as
chef at the top restaurant in New York, a Rappahannock River onesie for his well as several co-ops that raise oysters.
Le Bernardin. To their surprise, Chef soon-to-be born son. He sent them back They sell between 30,000 and 40,000
Eric had a secretary, who returned the of a picture of the baby wearing it. oysters a week to places as far away as
call. A meeting was set up. Oysters But if the cousins “Forrest Gumped” Las Vegas and Honolulu. And demand
were consumed. And before long, their way into initial success, as Travis is only picking up since the Gulf oil
Rappahannock River Oysters landed on Croxton likes to say, the growing of the spill, especially as many suppliers in the
the fanciest menu in Manhattan. business has been anything but haphaz- market raised their price.
The Croxton cousins moved on to ard. The cousins earned Food and Wine’s “A lot of people are price gouging
Craft, whose owner, Tom Colicchio, prestigious Tastemaker Award honoring now. We’re not,” Marchetti said. “And
is one of the most famous chefs in the those who have changed “the world of our customers definitely appreciate that.”
United States, thanks to his hosting food” by age 35. They have also been In addition to branding and
duties on Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Soon, featured on the acclaimed PBS series, selling their own oysters under the
Colicchio was tooling around Topping, “Chefs Afield.”
VA, in a Porsche, and including the In 2008, the Croxtons hired Anthony Marketers continues on page 8
Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010 7
Irv Spurlock, left, and Doug McMinn pre-cull their oysters, a process that will save them time later. Unlike the wild harvest, where oystermen
take what nature has provided, aquaculture crops require constant tending to check for fouling, predation and diseases. Photo / Dave Harp
The Inventor: Cages grow oysters, orders from customers
Sheets of New England cages weren’t built to bottom, no one can see them.
galvanized black those specifications. “We wanted to be out of sight, out of
wire sit in neat tan
k So McMinn built his own, a system mind,” McMinn said as he steered his
piles in Doug op
Ch where a grower can nestle a bag in boat over his leases. “We’re wide open
McMinn’s front Po one side of the cage for easy opening here, but we ride it out, because we’re
Ra toma
Ta oun
yard on Virginia’s
S
and culling. Then he sold his product on the bottom.”
ng d
pp c
ier
ah
Middle Peninsula. an
no to other aquaculture entrepreneurs in McMinn’s oysters begin life in a
ck
Nearby, in a covered Maryland and Virginia, as well as to custom-built upweller, then move to the
workshop, two * home growers. They gave him feedback, river when they’re a half-inch.
men measure, cut and he refined the cages so they no A native of Wilmington DE,
and construct flat, longer require bags. Over the years, McMinn fell in love with the
rectangular cages. he made changes to the design, the Rappahannock as a child on visits to
They are working fast—a new order has materials and the shape. Today, he is the his grandmother’s home. When he was
just come in for 40 cages. region’s largest supplier of oyster cages. 7, he found an arrowhead on the beach.
Seven years ago, when he left his McMinn and his partner, Irv Spur- When he was older, he would sit on the
job as director of marine science lock, also designed an oyster tumbler Rappahannock’s banks, watching the
at Christchurch School, a college that several companies use to give their deadrises come in. After graduating
preparatory school in Christchurch, VA, oysters a rounded, half-shell shape. from college, he moved there and landed
to try oyster farming, McMinn never About half of his business revenue at Christchurch. McMinn decided to get
thought he’d be in the oyster equipment comes from selling cages. And he is into oyster farming, he said, because
business. At first, McMinn’s company, still one of his own best customers. The he was tired of talking about saving the
the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Co., got company has 400 acres of leased bottom Bay and wanted to do something.
cages from Massachusetts and Maine, in the Rappahannock River, near the At first, McMinn’s wife helped
where aquaculture has thrived for tiny town of Wake. That’s about 3 mil- him in the office. When she became
decades. But Virginia required the cages lion oysters in the water, and a million
to be 12 inches off the bottom, and the sold each year. But with the cages on the Inventor continues on page 9
8 Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010
David Cham-
berlin tends
to the Great
Eastern
Shellfish Co.’s
“Snow Hill”
oysters. He
had consid-
ered raising
shellfish in
New York,
but when he
got a chilly
reception,
moved to Vir-
ginia. Photo /
Dave Harp
Odd Couple from page 4 In September 2008, they were on track Chamberlain got a Department of
for 200,000 when a Dermo epidemic Agriculture grant to build a better float
its oysters in floats. Chamberlain sleeps wiped out nearly their entire crop. with the goal of less fouling, and the
in a small shack on the property to tend “It almost put us out of business,” Dermo problem has subsided.
the crop. Breza stays over sometimes, Breza recalled. “We hibernated as “Sometimes it seems like we have a
too. Chamberlain has built a hatchery, much as we could. We took no salaries. difference of opinion, but it all works
but it’s not yet operational. Everything we sold went into our rent. I out,” Chamberlain said. “We’re both
Their first year, they produced 30,000 even had to lend the farm some money.” workaholics, and we’re too dumb to get
oysters. By 2007, they were up to 80,000. But Great Eastern bounced back. out.”
Marketers from page 6 oyster tide will lift all of their boats.
To that end, the company is
Rappahannock River label, the offering what it calls the Barcat
Croxtons sell Doug McMinn’s oyster—a cheaper product raised
oysters, which they also call by aquafarmers who are just getting
Rappahannocks. Other brands in into the business. The company
their stable include Snow Hills, donates $1 from each bag of Barcats
WitchDucks from the Lynnhaven, sold to the Chesapeake Bay Foun-
and York River Oysters, which dation for reef restoration.
oyster farmer Tommy Leggett “We’re not taking anything
grows. away from the watermen,” Mar-
“They are providing a shopping chetti said. “Everything we do is
list all over the United States as an oyster put in the water. We want
to what a Chesapeake Bay oyster to show these guys that they can
tastes like,” Leggett said. make a living on the water. That’s
The Croxtons have found more all they want to do.”
than just a steady supply of oysters.
Asked what his grandfather, the
They’ve found their growers are more
late William Arthur Croxton Sr.,
collaborators than competitors, be-
lieving that a rising Chesapeake Bay would say about his grandsons’
enterprise, Travis Croxton hesitates
These are a few of the brands that
for a minute.
Rappahannock River Oyster Co. “He’d hate being on our T-shirts,
offers. The company sells their own that’s for sure,” he laughs. “But he’d
oysters as well as those of other love to see the regional pride back
growers in the Bay. The oysters will in the Bay, that we’re getting our
land on menus in Las Vegas and product back on the plates of the
Honolulu. Photo / Dave Harp best restaurants in the country.”
Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010 9
Inventor from page 7
pregnant, McMinn asked his
sister, Stephanie, to help out
for a bit. She was reluctant;
unlike her brother, she had
never taken to the area. But
she did take to Spurlock; the
two are now married.
McMinn continues to
focus on improvements to his
equipment, as well as tours
Nick Przybyl, and demonstrations to get
a Chesapeake more people into aquaculture.
Bay Oyster “We set people up so that
Co. summer they learn from our mistakes,”
employee,
works to fill McMinn said. “Our customers
an order for can make plenty of money in
40 cages. their first year, unlike us. We
Photo / killed plenty of oysters in our
Dave Harp time.”
Fighter from page 3 in marine science, so growing oysters differentiate them from the saltier oyster
wasn’t a problem. Marketing them was that comes from Chincoteague.
four state agencies as well as the another story. Fortunately, seafood McClarren may not be knocking
Army Corps of Engineers. Then it distributor Billy Martin paid a visit after on doors, but he’s still the company
reading about the company in the local pitchman. He shucks oysters
had to tangle with its neighbors: One,
paper. at restaurants in Baltimore and
a wealthy Baltimore lawyer, riled up “It didn’t take too long into the
the community about the oyster floats. Philadelphia in the hope that the
conversation with Mr. Martin to
Marinetics now has good relations with realize that pounding on the doors customers will demand the product, and
most neighbors in the cove—and the of restaurants was a job better left to has been featured in a Food Network
wealthy lawyer’s home is languishing salesmen,” McClarren recalled. Canada show.
on the market The first step in marketing was a “It was a gamble, to call it a sweet,”
Then there was the matter of selling distinctive brand name. The company McClarren said, “but I think it really
the oysters. McClarren has a degree decided on Choptank Sweets to worked.”
Ray Geist,
a summer
employee at
Marinetics,
packs oysters,
100 to a box.
Photo /
Dave Harp
10 Bay Journal Reprint from November 2010
A.J. Erskine checks on young oysters in the paddle-wheel upweller he helped design at Cowart Seafood Co. Cowart joined another Northern Neck
shucking house, Bevans Oyster Co., to hire Erskine so they could supply themselves instead of relying on Gulf Coast product. Photo / Dave Harp
Legacies from page 5 their own suppliers. academic world for the real one, where
“What we need to do is show that an idea can go from a few sentences on
grow to market size in about a year. it’s viable. I’m not sure we’re paving a piece of paper to a business growing
At present, the aquaculture-raised the way, but at least we’re saying to millions of oysters in five years.
product accounts for about 15 percent the industry, there is another way to do “The difference with aquaculture
of the companies’ shucked product. this,” Erskine said. is that we’re sustainable, both with
Erskine would like to get that number to Erskine had high hopes for the Asian the heritage they’ve built and the
50 percent. If he can, there’s no reason oyster, but after five years of study and environment,” Erskine said. “To
other shucking houses couldn’t replicate $15 million, the states and the federal take my degree and use it as much as
the Cowart/Bevans model and become government decided not to introduce possible to make that happen is very
it. He has no regrets about leaving the gratifying.”
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