These oysters are harvested and transported to our wholesaler "Oyster Bob" who then markets and sells our oysters to fish processors all over Australia.
The most popular size that we sell is Plate; these are usually the best of the best.
SUCCULENT, TASTY PACIFIC OYSTERS
The method of oyster farming we use is rack and rail, with two baskets to each unit. Many other farmers use the BST system, but rack and rail has proven to be successful for us.
In Coffin Bay we are unable to catch our own spat so we purchase ours from hatcheries in South Australia and Tasmania. The spat is approximately 5mm long at the time of purchase and usually takes between 18 months and 2 years to grow to a sellable size. Spat is put into seed trays until they are large enough to be put in baskets.
During this 18 months the oysters are graded many times to ensure they are all getting the right amount of food and their growth rates are optimum.
We have specific machinery we use to grade the oysters. We have a hopper, which all the oysters are put into at the beginning of grading. The oysters then travel along a series of conveyor belts and then up into the grader. We have two types, one custom built and the other is a grading machine made by OYSTEK which is all done by laser and computer and sorts the oysters according to size. Grading is also done by hand, which is the most accurate but is very tedious work.
