'Mother Nature dealt us an awful hand': Island oyster growers predicting poor yield

Some Island oyster growers say they've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crop, largely as a result of P.E.I.'s rough fall and winter weather.

An early November freeze on Island bays and riverscaught some growers off guard, making it a challenge to properly sink their cages and protect their oyster crop for the winter.

Gordon Jeffery, co-owner of Five Star Shellfish an oyster processing plant in western P.E.I. saidmany of his suppliersare now reporting big losses as a result.

"Some fellas lost their seed, and some fellas lost their bigger oysters," he said. "Some fellas lost 20 per cent of their crop.Some fellas lost 40 or 50 per cent of it.... It's just the way nature is."

'A lot of silt at the bottom there'

Matthew French, an oyster grower on the Foxley River, says he managed to properly sink his cages ahead of the freeze.

But when he raised them this spring, he saidhe still discovered at least 70 per cent of his seedand nearly half of his two-year-old oysters dead an estimated loss of $150,000.

Frenchsuspects amajor wind and rain storm late in the fall washed sedimentinto the river and choked his crop.

"There was a lot of silt at the bottom there.... So the sediment came from somewhere," he said."I've always had great success with my seed. But this year, no.Mother Nature dealt us an awful hand."

Jeffery saidsome other growers in his area reported a similarproblem.

"Thestorm we had coming on the end of November there, it sprung a lot of seaweed and dirt overtop the cages.It smothers your oysters out there."

Watershed group investigating

Karen Rank, co-ordinator of the Lot 11 and Area Watershed Association, saidwhile her group hasn't noticed"any large issues" with sediment buildup in the area's streams and rivers, she plans to reach out to affected growers to hear their concerns.

She saidgiven the potential for climate change to fuel moreextremestorms, it's important to research what can be done to minimize their impact on the watershed and the oyster industry.

"This may be an isolated incident which can be tidied up with maybe tree planting," said Rank. "But once all thepieces of the puzzle are looked at, we'll have a better understanding of what's taking place."

Jeffery saidhe worries about the potential for more storms and unseasonable weather in the future.

For now though, he saidhisfocus is on keeping his plant running, despite the smallersupply some growers will be delivering this fall.

"The only thing saving me right now is I had some stuff left over from last year, which will keep me going for an extra month or month and a half.But if I didn't have that stuff, I'd probably be closing up shop early in the fall or early winter here," he said.

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