Issue link: http://southshoremagazine.uberflip.com/i/205938
The hatchery is where the magic happens. It's where art and science meet head on. "We grow the lifecycle of the oyster inside the hatchery before it goes out to the farm," says Whatley. In their business, the hatchery is aquaculture. They begin their process by genetically selecting a brood stock for certain key traits like flute size, color, and cup size. "Since we are genetically selective with our oysters, we can produce what our consumer's want," Whatley explains. "We don't have dull, ugly-looking gnarly oysters. We have pretty, boutique oysters with nice flutes and a perfect cup shape, that look great on a plate." Delivering the oysters to the float to be culled. But growing oysters is more than just incubating a seed to a certain size oyster; you need to be able to feed them as well. This is where their state of the art algae lab comes into play. Walking into this room was like walking into a sci-fi lab––like something you'd see in an episode of The X-Files. Large cylinders of various colored algae are stored and tested. Whatley says that they grow six different species of algae––all non-native to the United States. "The algae cultures start in small flasks, move up to mid-size tanks, and then move into the larger tanks. Without the algae lab we'd have no hatchery. So when you talk about sustainability...this is it." At Island Creek, they are equally concerned with what they put back into their ecosystem. "Although we have a carbon footprint, we are actually pumping bay water in, filtering it down to one micron, then pumping filtered water back into the bay, without harming it in any way." This filtering process produces an ecological balance that is at the core of what sustainability is for a healthy environment. Starter algae cultures in small flasks. From the hatchery to the farm and eventually to the plate, part of this up tick in the popularity of oysters could be attributed to the celebrity chefs in the U.S. and abroad. One noted chef, Thomas Keller, uses Island Creek Oysters specifically in his signature dish "Oysters and Pearls" at his restaurants Per Se and French Laundry, while chef and author Anthony Bourdain warmly reminisced in the first chapter of his popular memoir Kitchen Confidential, about "the A rock crab clings onto an oyster. K-tubes of marine algae grown to feed the oysters within the hatchery. 116