Maintenance 5-17-15 to 5-24-15
Oh what a difference a week makes!
When I did my cage maintenance on Sunday, I was amazed at how much fouling had occurred since last week. In just a week, the rate of fouling had nearly doubled! Here’s what I did and recommend that you do this week:
- Actively dunk each cage up and down in the water to remove accumulated silt and sediment.
- FOR THE OUTSIDE OF THE CAGE ONLY this week I used a scrub brush – scrub away from your face /body – to remove the worst of the growth from the outside of the cage. Also, it is a good idea to scrub the part of the rope that has been immersed in the water to remove the accumulated growth.
- Leave the cages on the dock for about 90 minutes to let the Sun and wind dry and kill the fouling organisms.
- Set a timer so you don’t forget to put your cages back in the water – it’s easy to get busy and forget (like I almost did last week)!
- Give the cages a good shake to keep the oysters from growing together and make sure the oysters are evenly distributed on the bottom of the cages before you put them back in the water.
Reminders:
Oyster Pick-up: CONFIRMED – Thursday, May the 28th. Next Thursday! For some of our growers on the Tred Avon and some of its tributaries, the pick-up will be on Friday, May the 29th. Kelsey will be calling you to let you know only if your pick-up will be on Friday instead of Thursday.
We will begin picking up oysters from our growers at roughly 9 a.m. and should be done by about noon. While it is not an absolute necessity for you to be there when we arrive, we do prefer for you to be there if you can. Our volunteers will initially meet here at my office on Commerce Drive and will deliver your oysters to Easton Point where they will be transported by boat to a sanctuary created by the State for us last year on the Tred Avon River. Please feel free to join us at Easton Point around 11 a.m. to see all of the oysters before they are planted. Our volunteers thank you, in advance, for all of the time and effort you have put in to maintain your cages. It makes their jobs much, much easier!
OUR VOLUNTEERS WILL BE LEAVING YOUR CAGES ON YOUR DOCK WHEN THEY ARE DONE. From there, you can do a final, thorough cleaning of the cages and either leave them on the dock or move them somewhere on dry land until they are needed when we deliver your next batch of oysters in September.
Oyster Social: River House at the Easton Club, Thursday, June the 11th at 5:30 p.m. Formal invitations will be mailed to you in the next two weeks. RSVP’s will be required.
Until next week..
Sincerely,
Oyster Reef Recovery Initiative