Under the ice: Winter oyster harvests on P.E.I. start early as crews work to meet market demand

Fresh P.E.I. oysters are tough to harvest in winter, but farmers have mastered techniques to reach shellfish buried under ice. Maria Sarrouh reports.

One of Canada’s most prized catches, fresh P.E.I. oysters, are trickier to harvest this time of year, but farmers have mastered a method to get their product on tables and menus.

Year-round demand means crews must work even when oysters are buried under a thick sheet of ice, to keep the shellfish moving across North America.

“The market doesn’t just want oysters in the summertime, springtime or fall,” said Jacob MacMillan, senior oyster farm manager with Atlantic Aqua Farms.

Winter has come earlier than in recent years, with crews usually waiting until late February for more ice to form.

“When it’s colder, it’s better,” said MacMillan, explaining a minimum of 12 inches of ice is needed to harvest oysters safely.

Once conditions allow, a snowblower mounted on a tractor clears snow off the ice, so crews have a clear view of the surface. Much of the work starts weeks earlier, in the planning stages, when teams cluster oyster pods into groups of six to eight.

Those pod locations are pinned using a GPS coordinating device. It guides crews to the marks, where they cut holes in the ice and then lower a submersible camera to confirm the pod is directly below, ready to be hooked and pulled up.

So far, MacMillan said hauls have been average this season, no more or less than in past years, but demand has slowed. While oysters haven’t necessarily increased in price, affordability has shifted, and customers aren’t buying them as frequently.

Atlantic Aqua Farms ships oysters across North America, predominantly to the East Coast of the United States, but as far as California.

For MacMillan, the job shifts with the seasons, and the variety keeps it exciting.

“It brings a lot of joy to the work,” he said. “I could be in the office one day, out in the boat one day, out on the ice another, snow plowing.”

He said the way oyster farmers adapt also keeps him inspired.

“No two farms across P.E.I. or across the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. are the same. Everyone does things a little bit differently,” MacMillan said. “So, trying to take little tidbits from different farms and integrate it into your own journey and how you operate, and try to take the best and make what you do the best every day.”

With weeks of winter still ahead, crews expect to keep returning to the ice, pulling oysters from below and keeping shipments on schedule.