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The Scientist and the Fisherman

These two sea creatures often find themselves at odds. But Niels Lindquist and David Cessna want the same thing — an oyster industry that works.

Adapted from an article for EndeavorsUNC’s online research magazine, by Mary Lide Parker ’11 and Alyssa LaFaro

For the past six years, Niels Lindquist has focused his UNC lab on the mystery of oyster habitats.

David Cessna — who not long ago would have been an unlikely collaborator with Lindquist — is a 55-year-old Carteret County fisherman. Known to everybody as “Clammerhead,” he’s been struck by lightning three times. “I’ve been shot once, stabbed twice, had over a hundred broken bones, two strokes, three heart surgeries and six other surgeries. I’ve got a stainless steel ankle, I’ve been married three times, I’ve got 13 kids, and you know what? This right here is the best adventure I’ve ever been on.”

Niels Lindquist, left, professor of marine sciences at UNC, and David “Clammerhead” Cessna, a Carteret County fisherman. Photo by Mary Lide Parker ’11

Niels Lindquist, left, professor of marine sciences at UNC, and David “Clammerhead” Cessna, a Carteret County fisherman. Photo by Mary Lide Parker ’11

There’s something exhilarating about maybe having hit on the solution to an ocean-sized conundrum — the nearly complete wipeout of North Carolina’s oysters.

This hits not just the diner and the restaurateur. A healthy adult oyster filters about 50 gallons of water a day. Fewer oysters mean more nitrates and contaminants in the water, which leads to less viable product for the seafood industry. Oysters create healthy habitats for animals like blue crabs and finfish — small species that have a commercial value of $62 million, according to the N.C. Coastal Federation.

The state’s coastline produced 1.8 million bushels of oysters in 1902. Today, 5 percent of that oyster population remains. Environmental changes, loss of habitat, pollution, disease and overharvesting are the major culprits.

Says Lindquist, “Despite a couple decades of restoration efforts, oyster populations have not come back well at all.”

“Fishermen and scientists haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on this stuff,” Cessna says. “There was always a big gap in communication. A lot of it had to do with fishermen not trusting scientists and scientists not understanding a lot of what the fishermen were doing.”

David Cessna checks on the oysters he and Niels Lindquist are growing. Photo by Mary Lide Parker '11

David Cessna checks on the oysters he and Niels Lindquist are growing. Photo by Mary Lide Parker ’11

The right substrate

Lindquist, who’s spent most of his 24 years at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City studying coral reef sponges, and Cessna, a seventh-generation fisherman who has worked with IMS for three years, are trying to build that bridge. What the seasoned scholar and the lifelong fisherman are doing is what many have tried before: Help oysters maintain sustainable growth with the aid of some artificial materials.

Oysters reproduce through spawning. After the eggs are fertilized, they become larvae that drift with the currents for a few weeks. Once the larvae are about 2 to 3 weeks old, they start searching for a hard substrate — something to cling to. The challenge is to develop a material that will be solid enough to attract oyster larvae but not harm the natural environment.

A traditional oyster bed sits on a mud flat and spreads far in all directions, a bit like a sprawling suburban neighborhood.

Lindquist and Cessna have built structures — Cessna’s experience in the construction business is another plus — that allow their oyster population to grow up instead of out. In place of suburban sprawl, they’re creating oyster apartment buildings. And just like with skyscrapers in a big city, these structures allow for a larger population to be packed into a smaller space.

They spent the better part of three years perfecting the substrate — a mix of cement and porous fabric.

One configuration is called “cow pies” — circular disks covered in oysters; another involves large, rectangular mats of oysters; a third uses rods and looks like underwater hopscotch. As the tide drops, you can see oysters growing in all shapes and sizes, on all kinds of surfaces.

“A lot of people put out substrates with no oysters on them — that substrate can just be oyster shell or various types of rock,” Lindquist said. “Basically you cross your fingers and hope the oysters settle, grow and survive. It’s kind of a crapshoot whether that works or not.”

Once Lindquist and Cessna got their materials in the water, oyster larvae attached to them immediately.

They call it an ephemeral substrate — inherently short-lived — and that’s exactly how this magic material works, unless oysters attach to it. “If the oysters like it, they’ll latch on and grow like crazy,” Cessna said. “If they decide they don’t like it, the substrate just decomposes without harming the environment.”

Spread your arms wide — that’s about the width of one of these panels of oysters. “We can grow about 5,000 oysters on each panel, and I can still pick it up myself,” Lindquist said, lifting the sodden panel up out of the water. “So if you think about what a billion oysters would be — that’s 200,000 panels.”

According to Lindquist, 200,000 panels is a manageable number. Last summer, he and Cessna produced 40 panels in a couple hours with just the two of them working in what Lindquist calls “a very low-tech manufacturing facility.”

"We can grow about 5,000 oysters on each panel, and I can pick it up myself," Niels Lindquist says. Lindquist and David Cessna built 40 of the panels in a couple of hours. Photo by Mary Lide Parker '11

“We can grow about 5,000 oysters on each panel, and I can pick it up myself,” Niels Lindquist says. Lindquist and David Cessna built 40 of the panels in a couple of hours. Photo by Mary Lide Parker ’11

After hauling their various types of substrates to their oyster neighborhood, they waited four months to see whether oysters would start spawning.

Since it takes up to three years for oysters to grow to market size in the wild, many aquaculture setups grow oysters modified to have three sets of chromosomes instead of the natural two. With the extra set of chromosomes, the modified oysters cannot reproduce, and all that energy gets redirected into growth. In North Carolina, these oysters typically reach 3 inches in 18 to 24 months.

The scientist and the fisherman want to grow oysters to market size in 12 to 15 weeks — all naturally.

“There are a lot of people out there who grow oysters and think we’re crazy,” Lindquist said. “But as soon as people see this, they get it,” Cessna added.

Most people are familiar with flat, razor-edged oysters. Oysters don’t have to grow that way. “That’s because they don’t have room to expand. What we’re doing is giving them a lot more room to expand,” Cessna said. Rounder shells produce a plumper, meatier oyster — just what Lindquist and Cessna have created.

David Cessna shows oysters he has grown while working with Niels Lindquist. Photo by Mary Lide Parker '11

David Cessna shows oysters he has grown while working with Niels Lindquist. Photo by Mary Lide Parker ’11

The market awaits

Lindquist is currently awaiting approval of the patent he submitted to the U.S. Patent Office. Meanwhile, he’s keeping close tabs on companies with similar ideas. A company in New Zealand is developing a biodegradable cable tie. “We could use those cable ties to very quickly tie together a structure and not worry about introducing plastic trash into the environment.”

If it works, there’s revenue and jobs from the seafood market and restaurants to the people who manufacture the substrate.

Working with the Carolina Research Venture Fund, the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise, and the Small Business and Technology Development Center of North Carolina, Cessna and Lindquist are exploring the many possibilities for their business.

“We can grow new oysters for the consumption market, for building reefs along shorelines, for helping to restore oyster habitat,” Lindquist said. “We just need to understand each market a little better, and see what makes the most sense.”

“We want to work with commercial fishermen to develop a program where everybody benefits from growing oysters — for food markets but also for restoration and living shorelines.”

Bogue Sound at the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, where Niels Lindquist and David Cessna are working on a better way to grow oysters. Photo by Mary Lide Parker '11

Bogue Sound at the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, where Niels Lindquist and David Cessna are working on a better way to grow oysters. Photo by Mary Lide Parker ’11

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