An Interview With Emily Johns
A writer of ours recently conducted an online interview with an aquaculture foreman, Emily. Emily Johns is the foreman for an aquaculture farm in Tomales Bay, which is the Hog Island Oyster Company. Hog Island Oyster Company is an oyster company that is located in Northern California. Beginning in 1983, the farm has been bringing oysters to Californians for generations. They currently grow 4 species of oysters, along with Manila Clams. These species of oysters are the Atlantic oyster, Pacific oyster, Olympia oyster, & Kumamoto oyster. Their main location is in Tomales Bay, but their hatchery location is in Humboldt County. This hatchery location breeds the oysters & raises them from an egg. After the egg is made, it is raised in Humboldt County until it is an acceptable size for shipment. Once they are large enough, they are shipped to the main farm in Tomales Bay. These oysters will stay in the bay for between 6 months & 2 years, depending on the species. She began working with the Hog Island Oyster Company in late August & attended an aquaculture conference along with other members of the company. This is where our writer met her. In this interview, our writer asked her a total of 25 questions. In this article, we will discuss the contents of our interview with her. Our questions can be broken down into three sections: questions about her career path, questions about the Hog Island Oyster Company farm, & questions related to the biological process of raising an oyster. With that being said, let us delve into an interview with Emily Johns.
The Contents Of The Interview
Ms. Johns always had a passion for aquaculture, kelp, & oceanic life in general. Ms. Johns began her career in aquaculture in Maine, with Mook Sea Farm, farming oysters. She came to Maine with hopes of going into seaweed farming, but this was unattainable at the time. She continued at this farm for a few years, until she decided she wanted a change of pace. Johns began emailing aquaculture farms up & down the California coast until the Hog Island Oyster Company responded to her. Johns interviewed & got a position as the foreman of the farm. She began in August of 2023, & has since added many new insights to the team. Ms. Johns is the foreman on the Hog Island Oyster Company’s aquaculture farm. What this job entails is that she works between the management & administration side & the farming side. She does both administrative work & the farming of the oysters. Ms. Johns doesn’t own any aquariums, as she is not an aquaculture hobbyist. On the farm, the oysters are grown primarily in mesh bags, directly in the bay. 200 oysters are usually grown in 1 individual bag, though it can fluctuate. By growing the oysters directly in the bay, the oysters naturally clean the water, & they are able to get a more balanced diet. An adult oyster is able to clean up to 50 gallons of water per day. The number of oysters that are produced by the farm fluctuates every year, so unfortunately, we are unable to speak on that. As said in the introduction, the species of oysters produced on the farm are the Atlantic Oyster, Kumamoto Oyster, Olympia Oyster, & Pacific Oyster. Additionally, they currently produce Manila Clams. In the past, they have produced a few other species of marine bivalve, & they may do so again in the future. Since the oysters eat algae directly from the bay, they do not have any kind of feed. The farm has a hatchery facility in Humboldt County, where the oysters are bred. After the eggs have been hatched, they are shipped to the main farm. On average, the oysters have a 50% mortality rate. This rate can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as the OsHV-1 virus in the bay. Across the 2 farm facilities, there are 7 different life stages. These 7 life stages are the egg, trochophore larva, D-stage larva, veliger larva, pediveliger, spat, & adult. From egg to pediveliger, they are pelagic, meaning they live in the open ocean. After Pediveliger, they become benthic & begin living on the ocean floor. The egg is the first of the life stages & lasts for approximately 6 hours. After that, they will go into the trochophore stage, in which they will now be able to displace water to bring food closer. At 24 hours of life, they will enter the D-stage larva. In this larval stage, they will gain a velum, which is used to help in locomotion. At 48 hours of life, it will go into the veliger stage. In the veliger stage, the shell & hinge of the shell will begin to form, so that the adult oyster is able to open & close its valves. It will stay in this stage until 2 weeks of life when it will go into the Pediveliger stage of life. During this stage, they will fall to the ocean floor, in order to find a suitable place to metamorphose. Once it has found a place that is deemed acceptable, it will attach itself to the rocks & evolve into a spat. It will stay in the spat stage for a few months to 2 years when it will then become an adult oyster. Prior to becoming adults, the oysters will be measured in millimeters. Once they become full-fledged adults, they will be measured in inches. The minimum acceptable marketable size for an oyster is currently 2.5 inches. The Hog Island Oyster Company has multiple locations around California, where interested customers are able to purchase oysters on the half shell. Additionally, they have a small shop on their farm where customers are able to just purchase large bags of oysters & shuck them on their own.
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