Just like wine takes on the characteristic flavors from where the grapes are grown, oysters, too, take on the flavors of their terroir. Unlike wild oysters with their thick, large and uneven rough shells, off-bottom cultivation lends the final oyster a much more delicate shape, with deep cups and a wind-worn look. That came in September, and a few days later, the oysters started appearing on menus. But first, the couple had to get the company licensed as a shellfish processor so they could distribute and sell directly to restaurants. In late May, the first LoCos were ready to be harvested. Because the aquaculture industry is so new, persuading both a bank to give them a loan and an insurance company to give them commercial liability insurance proved difficult.īrian and Lindsay Rosegger own Lost Coast Oyster Company, a new oyster farming operation in Tampa Bay. Though the actual lease itself isn’t expensive -$35 a year per acre - the startup costs are. Eventually, they settled on the spot in Joe Bay, and in 2019, their application for a 2-acre water column lease was finally approved. Because there were no approved areas in Tampa Bay, the couple had to search for sites themselves - a process that involved Rosegger spending his weekends exploring different parts of the bay with a snorkel. Water quality is a concern, but so are other environmental factors. The couple had to first find a plot of water they deemed suitable for oyster cultivation, which then had to be approved by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. owner Brian Rosegger sorts oysters at his aquaculture farm.īut starting an oyster aquaculture operation was a lot easier said than done. And though the state had approved several aquaculture operations, so far, there were none in the Tampa Bay area. He knew Florida’s warm waters lent themselves to speedy oyster cultivation - the warmer the water, the faster the oyster grows. All of a sudden, the off-bottom oyster farming industry in Florida started taking off, with industrious would-be farmers jumping into the bivalve business all across Florida’s west coast, in particular around Cedar Key and Panacea.īrian Rosegger, an environmental science major who spent four years studying oyster populations in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon spill, was already familiar with the industry.
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The same year, the state altered the existing regulations to allow full water column leases for aquaculture operation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared a fishery disaster on the bay, caused in part by decades of over-harvesting and saltwater intrusion. In 2013, Florida’s wild oyster population was in dire straits - in particular the Apalachicola Bay region, which at one time provided 90 percent of the state’s oysters and 10 percent of the country’s. The oysters are sorted by size before getting placed back in the cages. With Apalachicola oysters off the table for the foreseeable future, many have predicted that aquaculture operations like the Roseggers' could be an indication of booming business in years to come. Petersburg’s Alto Mare and Urban Stillhouse, Clearwater’s Bascom’s Chop House and Tampa’s Ulele.Įarlier this year, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced it was shutting down the wild oyster harvest in Apalachicola Bay for as long as five years in an attempt to save the quintessential Florida ecosystem. Touting the LoCos as the “new and improved Gulf oyster,” the name has already attracted a good deal of buzz, grabbing the attention of several high-caliber restaurants across the Tampa Bay area, including St. A few years ago they began hatching a plan for Lost Coast Oyster Co., and in September, their briny bivalves, called LoCos, finally hit the market. Brian Rosegger drains floating oyster cages, also called bags, while harvesting oysters at his farm in Tampa Bay.Īfter visiting off-bottom oyster operations in Cedar Key, the Roseggers were inspired to start an oyster farm of their own near their home in St.
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