Success is projected to continue in the local oyster industry.
Sales of the product in the northwest are up as a result of increased demand, in large part due to Hurricane Katrina, which left many Gulf Coast oyster beds in ruins.
Robin Downey, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Shellfish Grower’s Association in Olympia, says "There’s a terrible hole in the market and our growers are trying as hard as they can to fill it."
As a result, prices shot up 20-30 percent following the hurricane, Downey says, and they’re not expected to come down in the near future, as it will likely take at least a couple of years before oyster operations in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi are up and running again.
Downey says, "We hate to profit from our colleagues on the Gulf Coast, but that’s the fact of the matter."
Taylor Shellfish, in Shelton, Washington, is the largest oyster producer in the Northwest with growing grounds in Willapa Bay, and sales are up about 10-20% according to Vice President, Bill Taylor.
It’s been a balancing act, taking care of regular customers, while also helping the Gulf Coast, so that means planting more oyster beds.
"Almost every oyster grower I know… people are short on product," says Taylor.
While the market for live oysters (in the shell), has grown dramatically over the past decade, shucked oyster sales had been slumping, until now. In fact, Taylor says as a result of Katrina, we in the northwest are seeing shucked oyster prices back to where they should be, factoring inflation.
Not all local oyster growers are taking advantage of the opportunity the hurricane left.
Dave Nisbet, who sells his Willapa Bay oysters under the ‘Goose Point Oyster’ label, has chosen not to ship his product to southern processors.
Nisbet says, "I would rather sell in our own Pacific oyster containers."