When the world is your and your farm’s in the tide

By Luca Antolini

Oh, so you lobster?

If I had a nickel for every time I heard this question, I probably wouldn’t have to work on an oyster farm at all. 

Think of lobstering and oystering as cousins: lobstering is fishing, oystering is aquaculture. I find the word “aquaculture” pretentious and somewhat unfitting for the work I do, but despite the countless hours I spend cleaning the tens of thousands of oysters of their own excrement, oystering is, undeniably, aquaculture. While you can dig for oysters (think clams), the mollusks on that platter of a dozen oysters you ordered with artisanal sauces and lemon slices on the side were almost certainly grown by someone since the time they were the size of the fingernail on your pinkie.

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