As the oyster aquaculture industry continues to grow, small farmers may need novel methods for diversifying their products to secure their niche in a crowded marketplace. One way to create a more unique product is by altering the oyster liquor in wet storage to enhance the products natural merroir.
This project seeks to assess the potential and optimal application of using a modified wet storage system to finish harvested oysters using local water that has been artificially salted. For our study, we tracked the survival, condition index, and osmolality of oysters to determine an optimal range of conditions needed to properly modify the salinity profile of mesohaline oysters with minimal mortality and reduction of shelf life. Oysters were placed in ambient salinities (10 ppt), then exposed to 20 ppt salinity for a range of time periods (0, 3, 6, 9, 12 days) before being exposed to 30 ppt water. Oysters were then held at 30 ppt for 10 days before being placed in cold-storage to monitor shelf-life. This experiment was then repeated over four temperatures.
Our research indicates that shelf life and salinity osmoconformity are dependent on changes in temperature and varying salinity exposure regimes. For each salinity exposure conducted, a resulting decrease in shelf life was observed. Additionally, the shelf life of oysters was reduced further in warmer treatments (Fig. 1). However, the osmoconformity rate increased positively with water temperature (Fig. 2). These data will be used to provide guidance on how shellfish growers may use recirculating wet-storage systems to enhance their product or transfer oysters among water bodies with different salinities for finishing while minimizing mortality during shipment.