Media

“We have full exposure to the Pacific Ocean on the west side of Vancouver Island. Clean Pacific water comes in with every wave and tide, feeding and then flushing our oysters as it goes out again. The water is incredibly clean, and always tests above and beyond anyone’s standards.

We can change the oysters depending on the depth where they’re grown. In the winter we grow them close to the surface, where the limited food is most available. This produces the plumpest happiest oyster possible. In the summer we lower them to 30 feet to keep them in cold, crisp water, which prevents them from spawning. This keeps the oyster firm and sweet. Growing the oysters in deep water means the oysters taste like the ocean, not the beach.

You have to love oyster farming to keep at it, because you’re farming in all kinds of weather. We have a very diverse and happy team of people of all ages, men and women and local First Nations people – about nine of us in peak season.”

Taken from #BeShellfish for BC Oysters, Effingham Oysters at https://www.eatbcoysters.ca/mica-verbrugge/

VIDEO

Effingham Oyster, A Food Hubs BC Success Story (Credit: Province of BC)

Credit: BC Shellfish Growers Association, http://www.eatbcoysters.ca

Credit: Kelly Bedford, West Coast Wild Adventures

Credit: SimpleMetrix

Credit: Flavours of the West Coast, Season 4, Episode 4, Ucluelet

ARTICLES

Canada’s shellfish growers eager for markets to return, by Jennifer Brown, March 2021

Evaluating Scale with Mica Verbrugge from Effingham Oyster, by Hayley Springman, April 2020

Buying BC like never before: 2018 record year for food sales, by British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, December 2019

Canada invests in ‘clean-tech’ aquaculture, by Lauren Kramer, May 2019

The Story of Effingham Oysters, by Lady Oyster, May 2017

BOOKS

Appreciating Oysters: An Eater’s Guide to Craft Oysters from Tide to Table, Dana Deskiewicz, available at Amazon