Intertidal Longline Culture
Left -These are longlines with mother shell or oyster "cultch" laced into the line. These longlines will have oyster larvae set on them at Coast Seafoods shellfish hatchery.
Right -Oyster shell is used for "cultch", and once the oyster larvae settles on the shell it is referred to as spat or seed. Note the dark spots on the oyster shells, they are all individual oyster spat.
Longlines with spat set on the cultch are transplanted later for grow out in the Willapa Bay area of Washington's Pacific Coast and also down in Humboldt Bay in California.
Left -These are longlines of Kumamoto Oysters in Humboldt Bay, California. The longline keeps the oysters off the bottom which allows for them to grow faster and helps prevent some predation.
Right -Longlines are harvested by cutting the rope loose from the beach and loading them onto barges to be floated out on the incoming tide.