Galen Koch [00:00]: [inaudible] Hey. That’s so funny.

 

Joanna Fogg: [00:10] Oh, you guys already know her?

 

GK: [00:11] Yeah.

 

JF: [00:12] Get out. I mean, I’m not surprised. [inaudible] everybody in this world.

 

Teagan White: [00:16] We teamed up with Natalie Springuel during the height of the interview frenzy.

 

JF: [00:22] Oh, alright.

 

GK: [00:23] Yeah, interview frenzy.

 

TW: [00:27] Are you good with just two?

 

JF: [00:29] I think so. Do we have more? I don’t know how the small boat is.

 

TW: [00:34] I don’t really know either.

 

JF: [00:38] Yeah. Two is fine …

 

GK: [00:42] Did you guys meet Greta?

 

Greta Rybus: [00:45] Yes. Teagan.

 

JF: [00:47] That’s Teagan. Did you meet Marky?

 

GR: [00:48] Not yet.

 

JF: [00:49] Here comes Marky. Yeah, we’ll go on this big boat. T, I think I’ll take you, actually, and I’ll have Marky go grab some – we’ll go to (SB-4?). We’ll have Marky grab some seed and meet us there.

 

GR: [01:09] Oh, the light is nice today. I love it.

 

GK: [01:10] Yeah, it’s perfect.

 

JF: [01:11] It’s not sunny at all, is it? [laughter]

 

GK: [01:13] It’s perfect. It’s not raining, which is sweet.

 

JF: [01:16] And this is pretty typical Maine.

 

GR: [01:21] It feels about right.

 

GK: [01:22] Can you see (Anchor B?) or whatever, the other cruise ship (Anchor?) from here? Is it too far around?

 

JF: [01:29] It’s too far around.

 

GK: [01:30] Yeah, we were wondering when we were driving. I was like, “That will be nuts.” [laughter]

 

JF: [01:34] Yeah, no. Thankfully, we don’t have to look at any of that. We’re headed that way too.

 

GK: [01:39] Cool.

 

GR: [01:41] I’m just going to lock my car.

 

GK: [01:43] Okay.

 

JF: [01:45] Yeah, no worries. I love it. I love duct tape on Xtratufs. Yes.

 

GK: [01:53] [laughter]  I just literally –

 

JF: [01:54] I think you said that in an interview. [inaudible] make sure. At high tide, though, it’s perfect.

 

GK: [02:00] I was like, yeah, my boots are shot.

 

JF: [02:05] At low water, it can be a little dodgy.

 

GK: [02:08] I know. I think I could get a neoprene thing to put on them. It’s just a little hole.

 

JF: [02:13] Yeah, right on the crease, it happens to them.

 

GK: [02:14] Yeah, right where it –

 

JF: [02:16] Yeah. They get snug there and bent up.

 

GK: [02:20] Are those insulated?

 

JF: [02:22] These are like the warmest boots they make. Yeah, I get really cold feet. In the winter, we’re out here, and these [inaudible] wet deck boats, so you could be in a couple of inches of standing frigid water. That’s when I’m like, “Alright, you boys go on out there [inaudible].” I can’t hack it on really cold days. I can, with those heated things in my pack, for a little while. Is that cracked? Whose is that?

 

Mark Pinkham: [02:50] What? [inaudible]

 

GK: [02:52] I’m Galen.

 

MP: [02:54] How’s it going?

 

GK: [02:54] Hey, nice to meet you. That’s Greta. You’re Mark?

 

MP: [02:58] Yeah.

 

GK: [02:59] Nice to meet you.

 

MP: [03:01] Joanna, I can probably [inaudible] –

 

GK: [03:04] How long have you been working with them?

 

TW: [03:05] This is my second season, actually.

 

JF: [03:09] Okay, yeah. Well, I got it … so, I think what I’ll have you do is I’m going to take Teagan in this slow boat and go to (SB-4?). Can you round up a few bags of that seed?

 

MP: [03:24] From different cages or from the same cage?

 

JF: [03:26] Maybe from a couple, just so we have a sampling because I’m curious to see how terrible it is. Then meet us over there.

 

MP: [03:34] All seed or just [inaudible] seed?

 

JF: [03:37] Just the seed that you think is really fubar.

 

GK: [03:41] Fubar?

 

JF: [03:42] Fucked up beyond recognition.

 

GK: [03:43] [laughter]

 

JF: [03:46] We bought seed and put some of it on the Skillings River that’s right up there with an upweller. It got a mussel set on it, which I didn’t really know about until last week. It’s pretty nasty, apparently, so we have to do some meticulous sorting. We would be flipping them, so air drying them. But it’s such a yucky day that it probably wouldn’t kill off the mussels that quickly.

 

GK: [04:14] Do you want us to climb aboard?

 

JF: [04:15] Climb aboard.

 

GK: [04:17] Okay. With all my gear. It’s always awkward.

 

JF: [04:26] Nothing fancy, ladies.

 

GK: [04:29] This is great.

 

GR: [04:30] It’s so spacious and roomy.

 

TW: [04:33] It used to be a mussel boat.

 

GR: [04:35] Really?

 

GK: [04:35] Cool.

 

TW: [04:36] Yeah.

 

JF: [04:40] Yeah. The guy owned Bangs Island Mussels in Portland – Matt Moretti?

 

GK: [04:44] Oh, yeah.

 

GR: [04:45] He’s a nice guy.

 

JF: [04:46] He is a nice guy. He’s on the board of the Maine Aquaculture Association with me.

 

GK: [04:55] Do you use all this space?

 

JF: [04:58] Sometimes, yeah.

 

GK: [05:00] That’s great. It’s nice to have a wide, flat boat so that it doesn’t – because you’re leaning over the side so much. Is that the idea?

 

JF: [05:09] Yeah.  So, it handles like a barge, which can be a real – sometimes, on windy days, when you’re trying to get in in some of the smaller areas on the farm, it’s a real pain. But we got that boat last year – or no, this spring, we got that smaller, faster Carolina, which is good for a lot of the little maneuvering that we have to do. This is like the slow mothership.

 

TW: [05:37] I’ve got a picture somewhere of the whole thing full of bags, and it’s up on the top, too. And Marky’s having to stand up on the deck so that he can see over everything.

 

JF: [05:50] I mean, there’s a lot of – right now, we have –

 

GK: [05:52] Tell me if you need me to move.

 

JF: [05:54] – a little over two hundred oyster-grow cages out here. And you’ll see, they’re all four by six by one and a half. So, for us to move them, we end up towing them sometimes, but it’s not that big of a boat when you have a couple hundred cages. This is MDI [Mount Desert Island] here. There’s Lamoine State Park, and the DMR [Department of Marine Resources] has an office there, which is actually where we send oysters for testing if there’s ever a closure and we need to have that done. The airport’s right over there. Have you ever heard of FarmHer?

 

GK: [06:35] No.

 

JF: [06:36] It’s a TV show. It’s a photographer who wanted to showcase women in farming roles. They did an episode on us, and they had some drones. They weren’t allowed to actually fly them because they were too close to the airport.

 

GK: [06:49] [laughter] Oh my god.

 

JF: [06:50] For us, for licensing, when we wanted to first get our lease, one of the things that the naysayers were protesting was that they were close to the airport, and it was going to attract birds, and the birds would take down the airplanes, and that those airplanes were actually going to hit the elementary school in Trenton and kill kids. We were baby killers. But the Army Corps found that that was not real. There are birds in the area, but we aren’t attracting any of them. They’re already just here.

 

GK: [07:24] It sounds like it’s a bit of a stretch.

 

JF: [07:28] Yeah, it was a bit of a stretch.

 

GK: [07:32] So, that’s Trenton.

 

JF: [07:34] That’s Trenton. You’ll see when we get up closer to the head of this little island. You can kind of see now the Trenton Bridge.

 

GK: [07:40] Oh, yeah.

 

JF: [07:41] The cars.

 

TW: [07:43] So, I guess you could call my job a farmhand.

 

GR: [07:47] Wait, say that –

 

GK: [07:49] Say it again, Teagan.

 

GR: [07:50] What does your job mostly entail?

 

TW: [07:52] I’m a farmhand. I do everything, from coming out here every day to sort through oysters to collect harvesting-size oysters. And then sometimes I deliver oysters. Then, Joanna and I, during the summer, will shuck at catered events. So we’ll bring a bunch of our oysters and get all fancy and set up tables and shuck for people and answer questions about oysters. Then there’s just some random stuff in there, too. Last winter, I got to work with Joanna during a business boot camp project that MDI 365 puts on. So we presented to the year-round community and a bunch of finance experts, I guess, in the region. So, that was one thing. Then, earlier this spring, Acadia had, I guess, a workshop on intertidal health. They invited a bunch of stakeholders from the Frenchman Bay Area. So we went to that and talked about what a healthy intertidal system looks like and what we see. So, it’s a little bit of everything.

 

GK: [08:56] Acadia, like the park?

 

JF: [08:58] Yeah, yeah.

 

TW: [09:00] [inaudible] as much as I can.

 

GK: [09:03] Teagan’s great. We’ll get a portrait of you eventually.

 

TW: [09:11] I’m excited.

 

GK: [09:18] So, you got out of school and then started doing this.

 

TW: [09:21] Yeah, I survived. It was great. Joanna used to go to COA [College of the Atlantic] as well, so she’s got connections there. One of the professors knew that I was really interested in aquaculture, and I had just done my senior project applying for an aquaculture permit for the school. He knew that Joanna wanted someone for the summer, and so it just was like a perfect fit and has been the best thing.

 

GK: [09:43] That’s awesome. Are all the COA students jealous of you?

 

TW: [09:47] Probably. [laughter]

 

GK: [09:51] No, really.

 

JF: [09:53] I’m jealous [inaudible]

 

TW: [09:56] I have the best job. I do. I get to go out on the water every day and work with shellfish and amazing people. It’s varied, too. That’s one thing that I think – I mean, one of the things that I think is so great about New England is that you can get a job that’s so varied because you can do one thing in the spring and one thing in the summer and one thing in the fall, and this job has a lot of that aspect to it as well. It’s not just doing the same thing every day. I find that really refreshing and important.

 

GK: [10:23] Yeah, it’s cool because I think about – Joanna was saying you end up being your own marketing and publicity.

 

TW: [10:29] Yeah, absolutely.

 

GK: [10:32] That’s the part that – you like that about it.

 

TW: [10:35] Yeah. Yeah.

 

GK: [10:35] That’s cool.

 

TW: [10:36] I also think that the aquaculture community is so collaborative and cooperative. There’s a bunch of oyster farms on the other side of the bridge, but it doesn’t matter because A, oysters can be marketed as the specific body of water you’re in, so the more you have around the area, as long as this is Blue Hill Bay, and this is this area between the twenties, it really doesn’t matter. It’s cool to have that variety. Then, everybody’s just so wonderful with each other. The de Konings are here, and they’re amazing. They told me if you’re ever out here, and you have an issue with the boat, don’t hesitate to call us, and we’ll come over, and we’ll help. We’re all at the same legislative sessions in Augusta together. It’s a great community.

 

GK: [11:23] Do you think it helps to have, at least at this stage, more oyster farms in the same place to brand it? You know what I mean? Drumming up some sort of business?

 

TW: [11:38] Maybe. I mean, Sweet Pea’s going to start – well, word in the wind is that Sweet Pea’s is going to start at an oyster bar next season, which I think will be really cool. Yeah, I don’t know about that. I mean, I guess Damariscotta is famous for being really concentrated for oyster stuff. So, there’s a lot of – I guess what you could say about it is that there’s probably a lot of resources there for people. They’ve got water quality monitoring all the time. There’s a lot of studies specific to that area to help farmers. So, I think that would probably be one thing.

 

GW: [12:14] Yeah. But it’s not like – whoa. What’s that? Is that it?

 

TW: [12:19] No, these were salmon pens originally.

 

GW: [12:23] That’s what I thought.

 

TW: [12:23] And then, of course, the salmon industry went boom, and now they’re getting used for mussels.

 

GW: [12:29] Oh, is that the de Koning?

 

TW: [12:31] No, actually, it’s somebody else. I think these guys grow out their mussels in Blue Hill Bay or maybe in the Great Harbor area. I’m not exactly sure. But they’re collecting seed on all these little yellow floats with ropes hanging down, whereas the de Konings will actually drag along the shallow areas and then redistribute that.

 

GK: [12:54] The pens just kind of stick around for – if you’re up in back, there’s pens. Some of them are in use, and some of them aren’t, right?

 

TW: [13:04] Yeah, that’s my understanding.

 

GK: [13:07] Do you know how long these were out of commission?

 

TW: [13:11] I don’t know, but I think it’s pretty brilliant if you’re raising mussels because ducks are a really big problem if you’re doing rope culture. They’ll just swim right down and eat all of your stuff. So, I think the netting around the pens is brilliant.

 

GK: [13:30] Whoa.

 

GR: [13:31] I’ve never seen that before [inaudible].

 

GK: [13:33] It’s in the salmon pen.

 

GR: [13:34] Right. I’ve just never seen rope –

 

JF: [13:37] In a repurposed salmon pen. It’s like the nature [inaudible]. We would have switched from finfish to mussels, and they just repurposed their gear, which was smart. Super smart.

 

GK: [13:47] What’s the company?

 

JF: [13:48] Swanson is the family. I’m not sure what their company – actually, what their name is, which I should because I’m technically related to them somehow through marriage. I don’t know what the company name is.

 

GK: [14:05] So, it was the same family who had the pens that were salmon.

 

JF: [14:08] [inaudible] Yeah.

 

GK: [14:10] And then they repurposed their –?

 

JF: [14:13] Yeah, switched from farming salmon to mussels and used the pens.

 

GK: [14:18] Kind of a cool story in terms of what works better. Do mussels have the same filtering benefits as oysters and kelp?

 

TW: [14:32] I don’t think they can – so, I know oysters can filter up to fifty gallons of water per day. I don’t know what the statistic is for mussels. I think a singular mussel can’t filter as much, but I think that, at least right now, there’s a lot more mussels in this area of the bay than there are oysters. So they probably, I would imagine, are having a larger effect. One thing that’s interesting is that last week we were worried about biotoxin in the water. So there’s a specific species of phytoplankton, Pseudo-nitzschia. And they had some precautionary closures in the bay for a while. I guess mussels hold on to those a lot longer than oysters do. So, I think their metabolism is slower. I don’t know if that means that they’re pumping less and just holding it for longer or what.

 

GK: [15:35] Would that phytoplankton cause a closure of your –? Would you not be able to sell them? Would you wait until they filtered?

 

TW: [15:44] So, Joanna has an MOU, a memorandum of understanding. So, that is just acknowledging with the state I am familiar with the closure system and the science behind it, and so, if there is a precautionary closure, say, and I send off some of my oysters to you, and they come back clean, I can harvest within twenty-four hours. We’ve been using that a little bit this season, which has been actually really helpful. I’m not exactly sure what the unit is, if it’s like parts per thousand or whatever of the bacteria, but I think that the threshold is twenty units, and her oysters were coming in at like 2.4 and 4.2, so pretty below [the] threshold. It’s nice because the water quality center is in Lamoine.

 

JF: [16:37] Tegan? Sorry. Any idea what cage number you guys stopped at?

 

TW: [16:41] (SB-4?).

 

JF: [16:42] (SB-4?).

 

TW: [16:43] There’s only one bag left in the cage that we ended on.

 

JF: [16:47] All right. [inaudible] halfway?

 

TW: [16:50] Yeah.

 

JF: [17:11] Oh, I was here when we [inaudible] bag. I was actually out on the farm working the last time we were here. Did I forget to shut the battery off on this one?

 

TW: [17:21] No, that’s probably our [inaudible]. I think these are probably sorted through this one and the next one.

 

JF: [17:34] All right. We’ll walk that [inaudible] …

 

GK: [18:08] Joanna, what are you doing right now?

 

JF: [18:10] So, we are just approaching this cage. This is all of our near-to-market. So these are all going to be three-year-old oysters. We are hand-sorting them for ones that are big enough to hopefully sell this year before we overwinter. We’ve been hand sorting them through this whole set of the farm. It’s all of our three years. We put our smallest seed up inside where it’s a little bit warmer and more protected. Just for organization, they’re all by age, like the littlest, getting bigger, getting bigger, getting bigger. All of them – you can kind of see – we took off the grader. That pontoon barge had a tumbler and grader, which is in the yard now. Everything goes through a grader, or quick tube sorter, a couple of times a year. So we have a – it’s just a couple of big tubes that have holes in it. They get tumbled around and rinsed, and the small ones fall out first, and the big ones go on through just like those change sorters when you’re rolling coins. So, the whole farm has been graded a couple of times. Now, we’re just doing some of the small stuff by hand or finer stuff … So, we’re hoping that – we had a really slow start to the season this year because June was so wet and cold. So, normally, or in years past, we’ve seen a bigger spike in growth earlier on, which is better for selling the market-size oysters when the market is here. We have more of a push now. It’s really common to have more oysters in the fall just because they’ve had another season of growth. But we risk losing – the mortality rate is going to be a lot higher through the overwintering process than at any other point in the year. So, we ideally will sell most of these before we have to sink them because they’re just more likely to die over the winter. Yeah. That being said, it’s sometimes nice to raise our cages in the spring and have market-sized oysters because you have a higher price for them, and you have oysters when other people don’t, and you’ve got just easy demand, which is nice. It’s great for chefs to be able to be like, “Oh, I can start in May and go all the way through New Year’s.” Our clients love that. But it’s not always possible. If I’m going to lose one out of four of them, I’m like, “Let’s move now. Let’s move now.” So, go on and dump that out, Teagan. So, on the surface, where all the [inaudible] bags. There are several different mesh sizes. So, this is a thirteen-millimeter. They go all the way up to eighteen-millimeters.

 

GK: [20:47] So, those are called bags, even though they look like traps?

 

JF: [20:51] Yes. We don’t trap anything. We buy all of the sea. Everyone’s like, “How’s the fishing?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I don’t fish.”  Yeah. “How many did you get today?” “As many as I counted out is how many I got today. They’re there.”

 

TW: [21:06] [inaudible]

 

JF: [21:07] You’ll see. Marky is going to bring over some of the seed, like I said, that we got this year. [We] got a mussel set on it, which is one of the hardest things to keep biofouling down. Mussels are one of the most dangerous things to be set on because they’re tough, and they have these byssal threads. They can essentially inundate your bags and smother the oysters. They’re really hard to get rid of. So, some of these, apparently, look kind of yucky.

 

GK: [21:38] These ones that he’s bringing in?

 

JF: [21:40] Yeah.  These are all pretty fine. So, these ones – we’re hand sorting this stuff.

 

GK: [21:44] [inaudible] do what you do, too?

 

JF: [21:46] Yeah, we’re basically looking for ones that are two and a half inches and with a decent deep cup that we think are ready to go to market. I’d say nay to that one.

 

GK: [21:58] What’s the cup? What do you mean by that?

 

JF: So, how deep it is. So, this one has a really nice cup. We think an ideal oyster is really close to three and two and one. So three-two-one would be like three inches long, two inches wide, and an inch deep. Ours often don’t get quite that big. They’re still going to be significantly smaller than a southern oyster because we have such a much longer grow. Oysters down in Virginia are growing for one, one and a half years, but they’re growing throughout the entire season. Ours are only growing when the sea temp is at least forty-five degrees, which is less than half of the year.

 

GK: [22:35] I prefer the small ones, anyway.

 

JF: [22:37] We find a lot of people do prefer the small ones. We have a really high meat yield. So what that means is that for the size of the oyster, the meat is really there. You can tell this one – the shell goes out to here. I can tell you the meat goes right out to there.

 

GK: [22:56] How can you tell that?

 

JF: [22:58] I can just tell. See, it’s puffed out here. That’s where the meat comes all the way out to there. I shuck hundreds of them a week, so you can kind of get an eye. Yeah, this one’s going to go – this one has a little bit more of a shelf. This is all new growth, so there’s no meat in that section there, but you can tell where it’s puffy.

 

GK: [23:16] Wow, cool.

 

JF: [23:22] Yeah, Marky, maybe we’ll just sort this bag and then dump out some of that stuff. How many bags did you grab?

 

MP: [23:28] Six.

 

JF: [23:28] Six beauties … This doesn’t look that bad to me. We’ve got six cages of this. So, there’s six bags in each cage. We’ve got thirty-six bags of this stuff. This isn’t so – okay, it’s not great.

 

MP: [23:48] [inaudible] winter, though.

 

JF: [23:50] No. Oh, no, it definitely has to get sorted. It definitely has to get sorted. Let’s clear that bag off the table and then dump that one out. [inaudible] … I think more people are liking the smaller oysters, and it’s helping people who didn’t grow up eating oysters or just a little bit more palatable for the new people, which was really me. I mean, we didn’t grow up eating oysters. My mom discovered that she liked them once we started farming. My dad still doesn’t want to try one. My grandmother is like, “What?”  We just didn’t grow up eating that kind of stuff.

 

GK: [24:38] Because it wasn’t in Maine?

 

JF: [24:41] I mean, in part because it wasn’t in Maine. I mean, what she said to me once was they also didn’t have septic systems that were really that clean. People weren’t doing it that much. But you didn’t just go and eat any shellfish from anywhere because there was poo in the water. I don’t know. But yeah, I think smaller oysters are helping turn Mainers on to them.

 

GR: [25:10] I didn’t grow up eating oysters because I grew up in Idaho, and it was sketchy in the West.

 

GK: [25:17] Well, totally. They’re shipped out.

 

JF: [25:19] Yeah, how long have these –?

 

GR: [25:22] I’m kind of a newbie to oysters.

 

GK: [25:25] I know. I was like, Greta, are you –?

 

GR: [25:28] Let me tell you about me [inaudible]. There are people, I guess, like me, that are trying to navigate [inaudible] shellfish because it’s a little different now.

 

JF: [25:44] It is a little different.

 

GK: [25:44] It used to have a stigma, I feel like. Like you’re saying, it used to be like –

 

JF: [25:50] Yeah, and a lot of that came from poorly regulated bodies of water and really poor refrigeration and people not really understanding the science behind it. We can easily avoid eating shellfish that’s going to make us sick now if we’re just paying attention to doing our job. There’s that adage, “Don’t eat oysters in any month that doesn’t end in R,” which is really because they are – well, there are a lot of reasons, but mainly, it was because those months are colder, which means they were more likely to be kept alive. So, when refrigeration was poor, and they’re shipping crates of oysters on trains, if it’s in August, and your oysters are sitting out in a crate before you had refrigeration in the early 1800s, yeah, you don’t want to eat that. You probably don’t want to eat that after it’s been on a crate for a couple of days. But now we know how to refrigerate things and test for things. But there is still some truth to it because all of the oysters, especially ones up here, where we see a lot of colder temperatures, know when the water is getting colder and when they kind of have to go into dormancy for the winter, so they store their glucose, which is what makes them sweet. So they’ve had a full growing season to develop texture and flavor. And then, before they start to hibernate for the winter, they store up that sweetness. So, our oysters in November and December are the best. They’re definitely the best. Sometimes, the early spring ones, too, because it still is there. But I think that after a full season of growth, or November and December, oysters are the sweetest.

 

GK: [27:27] I’m going to get a little of the sound of these guys doing this.

 

TW: [27:32] It’s like cereal.

 

GK: [27:34] [laughter] Totally. Will you actually pick out the mussels?

 

MP: [27:45] The seed’s so small. We have to get the mussels to die basically. But when they’re clumped up – see, when they’re clumped up like that, the mussels that are on the inside of the clump won’t get exposed to the air to die. So, if you break them up so that they’ll lay in the bag single high instead of in a big clump like that, then the mussels will just air dry better.

 

JF: [28:21] Market-size mussels are only a year and a half, whereas market-size oysters here are about three, so they grow significantly faster than ours.

 

MP: [28:27] I think we can grow market-size mussels in a shorter time [inaudible].

 

JF: [28:31] We would be very good at market-sized mussels. Don’t be jumping ship on me. But yeah, these mussels will essentially outgrow our oysters, and you can see they’re already – their byssal threads will keep them from feeding. So, an oyster feeds by opening its shell deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, and then growing out and then down. But all of these byssal threads are going to prevent that feeding process, and the mussels are going to start to take the nutrients from them, prevent them from actually filtering, and then just completely outgrow them. So, they’ve just got to go. It can be slow going, but if we were to sink these cages like this – I don’t know what the growth rate of the mussel is exactly. I don’t know. I know [for] oysters, the sea temp has to be forty-five or above. I don’t know if mussels grow in colder water. But I know that if we were to leave these over winter, it would be a lot more mussels than oysters, and we would lose a lot of them, which we can’t afford to do.

 

MP: [29:43] Sometimes the byssal thread will make them join up like that, so the oyster will join together and be an ugly instead of a market.

 

GK: [29:56] So, when you say you’re exposing them to air, and then do you leave them out, or do you put them back in the bag, and then the mussels die? How does that work?

 

JF: [30:07] To save time, what we do – and we flip. So, every ten days throughout the summer, every single one of these cages gets flipped. That one over there is in the drying position. There are no oysters in it. But that’s in the drying position, and all the other ones are in the feeding position. So, every ten days, we flip them on a nice warm, sunny day; it kills all the seagrasses, it kills off the barnacles, it kills off tiny mussels; the oysters are significantly more resilient than pretty much anything else in the water. So, they can handle – they just lock up, they close up, they can handle being exposed to the sunlight and the air, everything else dies off, we flip it back, all of that – the biofouling floats away, it’s gone. But if it reaches a point where things are too clogged – like Marky was saying, if all of these are clustered together around some mussels, oysters are going to protect the mussels during that flip session, and then they won’t die, and they’ll continue to grow. What we may end up having to do because there are no good weather windows this week is leaving them flipped for a longer period of time. I mean, this area is kind of like a refrigerator right now. But if there’s enough time and the mussels are exposed enough, the mussels will die, and the oysters will live, which makes sorting them a little bit easier. The byssal threads won’t fall off. The byssal threads are still there, even when the oysters are dead. It’s why we’re always really careful when the mussels are first seeding, and they’re just like tiny, tiny, tiny. I mean, they’re even – they look like poppy seeds when they first set. That spat in the water is just crazy. So, we’re always really careful when that’s happening.

 

GK: [31:41] They’re just looking for something to glom on to.

 

JF: [31:43] Oh, yeah, they just want structures and things to hang on to. So, we always try to make sure we get a good flip when that’s happening. As soon as we start to see the first signs of it, we flip everything up so that, hopefully, it doesn’t attach then. But you can’t always be on top of all of it. We had to be careful with this stuff because when the seed is really tiny, and it’s in these tiny mesh bags, it’s also less hardy. So, it can’t take a flip as early in its life. It can’t take as long of a flip because when they’re really little, they’re more fragile, just like anything, really.

 

GK: [32:20] So, those are the baby bags?

 

JF: [32:22] Yeah. So, these are the smallest mesh that we have. It’s a four-millimeter mesh bag. All of the seeds when we got it – these were two to – was it three to six mil or two to four? Three to six. It must have been three to six, and we put it in fours. No, because it started in the upweller. We got two to four. So our smallest seed – when we got these, they were about the size of each one of those mesh holes. This is it after one season.

 

GK: [32:55] How does it not fall out?

 

JF: [32:57] So, when we first got it, they were in barrels that was just on pet screen. This is the first year we’ve had an upweller, where we started with the smallest. Every other year, and this year as well, we normally buy nine to thirteen-millimeter seed, which goes in this directly onto the farm. But it’s significantly more expensive than buying the tiny, tiny seed. You lose less of it, but when you’re talking about buying – we bought 700,000 seed this year at three and a half cents, basically a seed, it adds up. It adds up – tens of thousands of dollars of seed. We buy it cheaper and hope that we can actually get most of it to live. It’s just like buying a seed versus a seedling at a store. It costs more to buy a tomato plant that’s this big, but you’re probably going to get tomatoes sooner, and it’s more likely to live than if you buy just seeds. So, we’re kind of playing with that ratio. We learn something every day. We’re still trying to figure it out. Hopefully, the process isn’t too expensive along the way. You see, this one got a little bit more of a barnacle set. [inaudible] Mark, what’s going on? I’ll have to get that out without gloves.

 

GK: [34:18] So many barnacles, you can’t even –

 

JF: [34:21] That’s probably mussels. But yeah, there are [inaudible]. See this stuff? Once they reach this size, a twenty-four-hour flip on a good day will probably kill that, but it’s not going to fall off. I mean, it’s not going to get any bigger, which is nice, but it still entails a fair amount of chipping away at it.

 

GK: [34:41] Do you have to take these in, these floats and cages in, to clean them in the winter and do that kind of maintenance?

 

JF: [34:47] We don’t normally take the cages in, but a lot of the bags go home and get pressure washed. Some people pressure washed directly on their site, but it was one thing we said in our lease application we wouldn’t do just because it’s loud and disruptive. So, we lug them all home and do it in the yard. But most of the time, a good air dry – if you just stay on top of the maintenance of flipping them, most of the time, they’re never that bad.

 

GK: [35:16] It doesn’t seem like you’re doing a lot of work out here that’s very loud. Do you have anything that’s –?

 

JF: [35:22] The tumbler and grader can make a bit of noise, but we’re never any louder than if someone had a lawn mower. You can always hear someone’s lawn mower over anything else we’re doing, so we’re not – and all of our engines, these small outboards, are so much quieter than a lobster boat. We work normal daylight hours, so we’re not out here at 4:00 AM running stuff. Sometimes, we get a little rowdy. We’re having a lot of fun, but we’re pretty quiet. Right, guys?

 

TW: [35:52] Oh, yeah.

 

JF: [35:54] I don’t know what these guys do when I’m not down here.

 

TW: [35:57] I think we’re pretty tame.

 

GK: [36:00] Have a party. Have a real party, an oyster party. Jump on the [cage]. Do you call them cages?

 

JF: [36:08] Yeah.

 

GK: [36:09] All these?

 

MP: [36:10] Usually, when we’re running the grader, too, we have noise-canceling headphones in. So, we’re not even talking to each other.

 

JF: [36:17] Just plugged into their own [inaudible].

 

MP: [36:18] We just throw oysters into it. Let it do its thing.

 

TW: [36:22] The best conversation, right?

 

MP: [36:25] [laughter] You’re so funny, Teagan.

 

JF: [36:28] So, I think we could do this sixteen times, and then I think it actually makes sense to do this before we do a flip on them. I should look at the weather and see what day is going to be the best for drying it out. But don’t you think?

 

MP: [36:42] You could do thirty-six times.

 

JF: [36:44] How many can we fit on the float?

 

MP: [36:52] We could fit all the bottom bags on there for sure. I’ve never really tried stacking bags on the float when it didn’t have the grader on it.

 

JF: [37:01] Yeah, we got a lot more room there now.

 

MP: [37:06] If there’s no good weather, too, we could probably bring them back to the shop[inaudible].

 

JF: [37:12] We’re supposed to get wood this week, Marky. We’re going to have a wood-stacking party in the shop this weekend.

 

TW: [37:17] It’s like the fifth time he suggested it. He really wants to do it.

 

JF: [37:20] Marky just wants to bring these home and stand them by the woodstove in the shop and sort them – fair-weather farmer. I don’t blame you. No, we could do that.

 

MP: [37:30] We could just leave them in there, and we could go back to work on something else.

 

JF: [37:31] What are you going to do with all these mussels? You going to feed them to my hens? [inaudible] Let’s see if I get my two-year-old out here sorting them.

 

MP: [37:40] She has more appropriate-sized hands for the task at hand.

 

JF: [37:45] What do you mean? You think your hands are a little big for this, Mark?

 

MP: [37:49] [inaudible] mussel.

 

JF: [37:50] But what are you going to do with all these mussels in my shop?

 

MP: [37:54] No, just leave the bags in there.

 

JF: [37:57] Oh, air dry in the shop.

 

MP: [37:59] Yeah.

 

JF: [38:00] Just cook them. Just roast these baby mussels inside the workshop. I see. And then come back? The thing is, you’re still going to have to do this. You’re still going to have to hand-sort and pull the dead one. You’re thinking you’re just going to –

 

MP: [38:13] All the dead mussels? They don’t just break – the shells usually break [inaudible].

 

JF: [38:18] I guess if the byssal threads are gone, then let the oysters grow, and the mussels would be easier to pick out later. All right. I smell what you’re stepping in. Still figuring out a lot of different processes, what makes the most sense.

 

GK: [38:38] Yeah, for sure. I mean, how did you learn? How do you know –?

 

JF: [38:44] YouTube. We learned everything we know about oyster farming from YouTube.

 

GK: [38:48] [laughter] I like that.

 

JF: [38:49] [laughter] I mean, a fair bit. One thing that’s been really great about this industry is that everyone who is already involved in it has been really eager and willing to share knowledge and things that work and don’t work. There’s such a network of growers online. The application process is so long for the lease that you end up finding and meeting a lot of other sea farmers before you’re even allowed to start. And you learn a lot throughout that process. So, we did learn a fair bit from other people. A lot of research. Definitely, yeah, YouTube, seeing what people are doing, and then just trying it, figuring it out.

 

MP: [39:30] That’s pretty much how it was when we got it.

 

GK: [39:32] Whoa.

 

JF: [39:33] Yeah. That’s how big our seed was when we got it.

 

GK: [39:35] Teeny. It looks extra teeny on your hand. [laughter]

 

MP: [39:41] Oh, burn, already hit me with a joke.

 

JF: [39:45] [laughter] Marky’s little paws.

 

MP: [39:46] [inaudible] took a picture of it on her hands, and the guy that used to sell the oyster-grow cages said, “That’s really Mark’s hand. That’s a market-oyster.”

 

GK: [39:59] [laughter] That’s funny. Do you have like an idea – I’m sure you do – of how many you lose of the seed?

 

JF: [40:10] Yeah, so it depends. I’m not exactly sure what our mortality rate was of the tiniest seed this year that we had. We’ll have a better chance of calculating that when it’s a little bit bigger, and then we’ll lose some over the winter. We hope to only lose twenty percent each season. We had a rough winter for some of our bigger ones this season because they got pushed down too far in the mud. So, this is all muddy bottom. The cages – we take off the ends of those floats, and what’s keeping them buoyant now fills with water, they get flipped upside down and pushed down to the bottom. If there is too much ice, the ice can push them further into the mud, and then the oysters are smothered. So bags that were on this rack of the cage on this site got pushed into the mud, and some of them – we were seeing mortality rates of fifty, sixty percent, which we –

 

GK: [41:06] Last winter?

 

JF: [41:07] Yeah, last winter. So, it’s not sustainable that way. What we’re doing this winter is buying some bottom cages, which packs them in more tightly. And we’re going to take them out to a part of the farm that has rockier bottom so that it’ll be a lot more handling in cold weather, but it will keep them from getting pushed down into some of this mud. I can’t lose fifty percent of my oysters every time [inaudible]. [laughter] That’s a really expensive habit. So, we’re hoping to modify that. It hasn’t always been that bad. But I don’t know if there were just some flows that came down and pushed them enough. They’re also different-style cages. So some of these we just got are called high flows, and the pontoons are a little bit taller, which helps them air dry better, and hopefully, it will keep them a little bit more out of the bottom.

 

GK: [42:03] That’s pretty ingenious that you fill them, and then they sink, and it’s the same thing. It’s cool.

 

JF: [42:10] The hardest thing with them is that it’s a lot of manual labor for us now to flip them. Flip day is come out here and just turn every single one of these and shake it out, and then come back twenty-four hours later and flip it again. There are boats that have – or there are people who have crews that do it or cages where you stand on the sides so that you’re actually, instead of bending over to flip, you’re flipping from your waist. There are some that have trimarans or catamarans, so actually, they use a flipper that goes in between – it’s like two of these boats – and they go down the cage, straddle a string, and there’s a cage flipper that flips them. We’ve thought about having them go up with a hauler and onboard and sending them back-flipped. Right now, we just still break our backs. I don’t do it anymore. I just drive.

 

GK: [43:06] [laughter] That’s why you have a crew. Totally.  How are you doing, G? Need anything –

 

JF: [43:15] Yeah, need anything?

 

GK: [43:17] – specific?

 

GR: [43:20] I might just want to take a moment. Most of the pictures I have, people are doing something or talking. I might have you just –

 

JF: [43:29] Look at you?

 

GR: [43:30] [inaudible] for a minute. You’re the captain, right? …

 

GK: [43:55] My Bar Harbor exhibit will be “Sounds of Oysters.” That was a nice one.

 

TW: [44:03] There was a farmer that came up to visit the farm last year, and theirs is called The Walrus and the Carpenter. I thought that was brilliant.

 

GK: [44:14] Yeah. That’s what their farm is called?

 

TW: [44:16] Yeah.

 

GK: [44:17] That’s sweet. Look at this. I think I need to get a new pair of boots – Xtratufs that are insulated. This year is the year.

 

TW: [44:29] Yeah, it’s true. They’re freezing.

 

GK: [44:32] Your toes just start to get cold so quick this time of year, and you’re like, “It’s not even that cold out.”

 

TW: [44:37] Yeah, absolutely.

 

MP: [44:38] Yeah, Xtratufs.

 

TW: [44:40] Marky’s got a whole theory on it.

 

GK: [44:41] Really? What are you wearing?

 

TW: [44:43] This is his new pair of Dunlops.

 

MP: [44:43] These are Dunlops.

 

GK: [44:45] Whoa. Those are heavy-duty.

 

TW: [44:48] Can you smell the new rubber smell on them?

 

GK: [44:50] Yeah. Oh, yeah. You think the Xtratufs are made to –

 

MP: [44:53] I wear Xtratufs in the summer. My Xtratufs aren’t insulated. So, if there’s a couple of us working over here, and we have a lot of bags on the boat, there’ll be some water right there. When you’re standing in a couple inches of water, they get cold pretty quick. So, I bailed on them. But they are more comfortable. These are heavier and not quite as comfortable at the end of the day.

 

GK: [45:20] Yeah, but it’s like, warmth-discomfort [inaudible]. I don’t know.

 

MP: [45:25] Seriously, it’s kind of a toss-up.

 

GK: [45:27] What are these things?

 

MP: [45:30] Speakers.

 

TW: [45:31] Yeah. They make everything so much better.

 

MP: [45:35] They used to be up inside by that bottom machine. Jesse’s like, “Oh, it doesn’t really make any sense because we’re standing back here.” So, I think it was muffled whenever it was up there.

 

TW: [45:47] You couldn’t hear it.

 

MP: [45:49] We don’t have to have it as loud if it’s right in your face. We can hear better, and no one else can hear it. So, kind of a win-win.

 

GK: [46:00] Totally.  How long have you been working on the farm?

 

MP: [46:04] I think this is my second year. I lobstered before. I still lobster once in a while now. More often. Last week, I’m like, “I’m not going lobstering this weekend.” My cousin’s crew was sick, so I ended up going yesterday.

 

GK: [46:24] But you’d rather not do it?

 

MP: [46:26] No, I love it. But it’s a love-hate thing. It’s good, but the hours are –

I mostly get called up to go on brutal, long days. So, last few times before that, I went, and we hauled – we went before sunrise and got done after sunrise. So, it was like –

 

GK: [46:53] No, too much.

 

MP: [46:54] Not really a thing you want to do on your day off because when we do that, it’s during the weather window. Then, I’ll have to come back to work, but then they’ll have a few days off.

 

GK: [47:09] Right, right. They’re doing it before a big storm or something.

 

MP: [47:12] Yeah.

 

GK: [47:13] Yeah, this time of year is crazy for them because there’s so much happening. The lobsters are moving around.

 

MP: [47:22] The lobsters are [inaudible] south. But yesterday was a good day. But today isn’t a good day for lobstering. The way the wind is, it’s easterly, so this land blocks us from it. But if you steam twenty miles southern, then you’re exposed to it.

 

GK: [47:41] Totally. Is this spot –? Do you guys come out here in the winter, too? I mean, because you got to flip the cages?

 

MP: [47:48] These cages in the winter – we actually take these caps off, and then we fill the pontoons with water and push them to bottom so that ice doesn’t – the first year I came up to help Jesse with it, the ice was physically towing strings. The strings that we have left floating – the last ones we had to sink – we had to unsnarl them from the ice pack. It was just like – they won’t actually stay here on the surface in the winter because of the amount of ice it gets because it’s so sheltered up in here.

 

GK: [48:22] Right. What time of year will you start to sink them?

 

MP: [48:29] Joanna, when do we usually sink? December-ish?

 

JF: [48:31] First couple of weeks in December, yeah, usually.

 

MP: [48:35] We’ll sink the majority of this stuff first, but then we’ll leave these five or six strings of market so that we can try and get everything off the farm, so we don’t risk the winter loss.

 

JF: [48:48] One of the harder parts of sinking for these guys is we can really only do it a couple hours on either side of low water, which is not – you only get one low tide during daylight hours. So you can really only do it effectively for five or six hours a day, although you guys end up putting in longer days than that. But if it’s too high water, it’s hard to sink them properly, and there’s a lot of money in each one of these cages. So, it takes weeks to sink the whole farm because we’re waiting on that tide window and daylight.

 

MP: [49:24] We have a long pole that hooks onto the top of the cage. So, when the cage is sinking down, we actually have a pole connected to it that has a release on it. So, we just have to make sure it lands on the pontoons because if it lands on this side, then all these bags die basically.

 

GK: [49:43] How many feet down are you usually –? When it’s low water, how many feet down are you sinking them?

 

MP: [49:49] It’s only like – well, when we were flipping the other day, it was two and a half up there, but that was a drainer tide.

 

JF: [49:57] Drainer tide. Wow. We still have to count for that.

 

MP: [49:49] So, even at pretty close to high water now, probably.

 

JF: [50:03] Yeah, it is.

 

MP: [50:06] Too high water. It’s probably [inaudible] –

 

JF: [50:09] It’s probably –

 

GK: [50:11] So, this is really – this is a serious inlet that drains out pretty –

 

JF: [50:15] Yeah. At low water, this is all – there’s a bar that connects Thomas Island to the mainland.

 

GK: [50:24] Cool. Amazing.

 

TW: [50:31] There are a bunch of wormers that come cruising out here all the time to go digging around these parts.

 

GK: [50:37] Sweet.

 

MP: [50:38] She must not have the new iPhone.

 

TW: [50:40] [laughter]

 

GR: [50:42] Me?

 

MP: [50:43] I said she must not have the new iPhone.

 

JF: [50:46] Because she has a real camera.

 

GR: [50:50] Yeah, I’m a little worried about that new iPhone taking my job.

 

JF: [50:52] Taking your job? Portrait mode. [laughter]

 

GR: [50:55] I know. I have an old iPhone. Whenever I look at someone else’s new iPhone, I’m just like, “I just can’t. No.”

 

JF: [51:02] “I don’t want to know about it.”

 

GR: [51:03] No, it’s too good. Yeah, I prefer to have super-heavy equipment that I have to carry around. It’s my strength workout.

 

MP: [51:11] I just took a picture before sunrise the other day. It just looked weird because it was so bright. It’s like, “That’s actually way darker than that.”

 

GR: [51:21] It gives you light when there’s no light.

 

JF: [51:23] It’s crazy.

 

GR: [51:24] It’s the [inaudible].

 

JF: [51:25] These little things are taking over our lives.

 

GK: [51:27] I know. I’ve been laughing because there’s like three people in Bar Harbor, who’ve been like – I’ve been like, “Oh, Greta’s here. We’re going to come take a picture” – that I interviewed – and they’re like, “I’ll just send you a picture from the boat.”

 

JF: [51:38] “I just got one.” [laughter]

 

GK: [51:39] I’m like, “No, no.”

 

GR: [51:41] I’d like to think that it’s a different thing. [inaudible]

 

JF: [51:45] [laughter] Yeah.

 

GK: [51:45] [laughter] Yeah, it’s a little different. It’s like, I don’t want a selfie of you.

 

TW: [51:52] That’s a great image.

 

GK: [51:53] That would be [inaudible]. That’d be a different project. [inaudible] It’ll be a thing.

 

GR: [52:02] That actually would be kind of great.

 

JF: [52:05] Lobster selfies.

 

GK: [52:07] Lobstermen selfies.

 

MP: [52:08] I’ve honestly never seen a lobsterman take a selfie.

 

GK: [52:11] [laughter] So funny.

 

JF: [52:16] Well, is there anything else you want to see?

 

GR: [52:18] I’m going to grab portraits of each of you. I’m going to torture each one of you.

 

GK: [52:25] Yeah, what’s your plan, Joanna?

 

JF: [52:28] I’m going to leave these guys out here [inaudible] and bring you guys back in the fast boat. I’ve got to go deliver some oysters. What do you think we should do with these bags today? Do you want to leave them until we have a better air-dry day?

 

MP: [52:44] Yeah. I guess 300,000 oysters – to try and individually pick them out by hand would be a serious undertaking.

 

JF: [53:00] Alright. We can wait until we get wood [inaudible] …Tomorrow doesn’t look bad, Marky. Partly sunny, high of fifty-four, light wind. At least it’s not rainy. Tuesday night is a little foggy. I think we could flip those, take out the bottom rack’s bags, throw them on the [inaudible]. I think we just give them a day and a half, maybe two. I think those oysters are big enough to handle pretty much two days, but the mussels won’t last. That’s the only option this week. Wednesday night looks like showers. Thursday, chance of rain. Thursday night rain. Friday rain. Thursday’s Halloween. What? It’s going to rain on Halloween?

 

GR: [54:37] Wait, I thought Wednesday was Halloween.

 

GK: [54:39] No, Thursday.

 

GR: [54:40] Crap, I’ve got to redo my whole thinking this week.

 

GK: [54:45] Hey, look at these little guys.

 

GR: [54:47] I was just noticing those little –

 

GK: [54:47] Little pals.

 

JF: [54:50] Those are our pet sea monkeys.

 

MP: [54:53] Don’t worry. Teagan will individually release those into the [inaudible]

 

All: [54:56] [laughter]

 

GR: [54:58] Catch and release.

 

GK: [54:59] Good.

 

JF: [55:00] Teagan’s always getting shit for [inaudible] – humane.

 

MP: [55:02] What’s the one night you always mess with?

 

TW: [55:05] Rock gunnels.

 

MP: [55:06] Yeah.

 

GR: [55:07] Little gunnel fish.

 

TW: [55:08] They’re so super cute, but they’re so slippery, and they know it.

 

GK: [55:12] They know it. What are these?

 

TW: [55:16] Sea fleas.

 

GK: [55:19] So, actually, sea monkeys.

 

GR: [55:22] Yeah.

 

TW: [55:22] Is that what sea monkeys are?

 

JF: [55:23] Yeah, [inaudible].

 

GK: [55:24] What sea monkeys are.

 

TW: [55:26] Oh, we could sell that.

 

GK: [55:27] The kind that you get at the pet store.

 

TW: [55:29] Do you remember those?

 

MP: [55:30] Is it a sea flea?

 

GK: [55:31] I think it is.

 

GR: [55:32] If you call it a flea, it sounds gross. If you call it a monkey, it sounds cool. I thought the sea flea was the one that jumped out of the rocky –

 

MP: [55:38] Sea fleas don’t get the – yeah.

 

GK: [55:40] These are also sea fleas.

 

JF: [55:42] I don’t know if fleas can swim.

 

GR: [55:45] Is that the Latin name?

 

TW: [55:47] Technically, it’s –

 

JF: [55:50] Do you know it? Do you know the Latin name for sea fleas?

 

TW: [55:51] Yeah, I do. I do, yeah.

 

JF: [55:53] Let’s hear it.

 

TW: [55:56] Scud. Scud species. You’d say scud –

 

MP: [56:00] Joanna, remember the laughing gulls we had?

 

JF: [56:03] [laughter] Oh, yeah.

 

GK: [56:03] Whoa.  Something just jumped out of the water. Is that a seal?

 

JF: [56:07] Probably.

 

MP: [56:07] Most likely.

 

GK: [56:08] That was a big jump.

 

TW: [56:09] Except when I think it’s a seal.

 

GK: [56:10] Do you have the gray seals? Or do you have harbor seals?

 

TW: [56:13] Not so much in here. It’s more harbor seals.

 

GK: [56:16] I was super surprised. I was just up in Lubec for a while. There were so many gray seals. I was saying that to you, I think. Or, no, I was saying it to somebody else.

 

GR: [56:25] Are those the speckly ones?

 

GK: [56:26] So many.

 

JF: [56:28] They’re huge.

 

GR: [56:28] They’re huge.

 

JF: [56:28] They’re huge. [inaudible]

 

GK: [56:29] They’re huge. And they would come in when the tide was going out because I think there’s a bunch of pogies now that go in there. There were so many gray seals, like fifteen at a time, just playing. It was wild.

 

TW: [56:43] They had a great white shark out at Mt. Desert Rock this summer.

 

GK: [56:46] What?

 

TW: [56:46] Yeah.

 

GR: [56:49] No.

 

GK: [56:50] All the surf –

 

GR: [56:52] Galen and I are trying to learn how to surf.

 

GK: [56:56] My boyfriend’s going all the time. I’m like, “No.”

 

GR: [56:59] There’s no [inaudible].

 

JF: [57:00] There’s no –

 

GK: [57:01] They’re getting eaten down in Cape Cod.

 

JF: [57:02] There’s no sharks. That’s a myth. [laughter]

 

MP: [57:05] A winter or two ago, I was riding my bike, and it was fifty degrees in January. I went down to Sand Beach. There was a bunch of people all rigged up surfing down there.

 

GK: [57:14] Oh, yeah.

 

JF: [57:14] Oh, that water’s cold. [inaudible]

 

GK: [57:15] They’ll go.

 

MP: [57:16] They had full wet/dry suits on or something.

 

JF: [57:20] I get cold [inaudible]

 

MP: [57:22] It was actually pretty good surf that time of year. I mean, it’s sketchy. They were in the rocky section of the beach, too, which I didn’t get.

 

GK: [57:31] No, that’s – yeah. Winter’s the time.

 

GR: [57:34] Winter’s the time partially because there’s – listen, we love boys, but it’s nice to not have boys around that are like, “Oh, just do it this way.”  I’m like, “I know, I’m learning. I’m bad at this. I get it.”

 

GK: [57:47] The summer dudes [inaudible] are the worst.

 

JF: [57:47] “That’s what I tried to do.”

 

GR: [57:50] “Easier said than done, guys. This is hard.”

 

GK: [57:52] The Canadians.

 

TW: [57:55] The Canadians?

 

F: [57:56] There’s more space for Quebecois.

 

GK: [57:57] The Quebecois.  Yeah.

 

TW: [57:58] Oh, I can see that.

 

GK: [58:00] They’re so funny. I hate to – it’s so fun to make fun of them.

 

JF: [58:04] Can you do a good accent?

 

GK: [58:06] Not really. They’re like, “Can I park here in my van?” They always want to park in their vans all over Southern Maine. It’s like van life. It’s so funny. We live at a winter beach rental out at one of the Southern beach rentals. These people drove by in their van, and they’re like, “Excuse me, can we park our van by your house?” “No. We have cars we’ve got to park here.”  It’s a fifteen-passenger Chevy from 1983.

 

JF: [58:43] They’re like, “Our house?”

 

GK: [58:45] They’re like, “Oh, you look so cool.”  We’re like, “No.”

 

JF: [58:48] “So cool.”

 

GK: [58:48] “We’re not cool.”

 

JF: [58:52] “Oh, you look so cool.”

 

GK: [58:53] “Oh, you’re so cool.” It’s so funny. They’re so funny.

 

GR: [58:59] I just imagine that they are always on a wave, doing the French “Ha-ha-ha.”

 

GK: [59:06] It’s so funny. I didn’t know that so many Quebecois came down there. But it’s like their Florida.

 

TW: [59:15] They got the wrong Southern hospitality.

 

GK: [59:18] I know. We’re like, “Get out of here.”

 

GR: [59:22] “First come, first serve.”

 

GK: [59:27] Anyway.  Jokes.

 

JF: [59:30] Jokes.

 

GK: [59:31] So many jokes.

 

GR: [59:34] It’s funny to make fun of Canadians because they’re all really nice.

 

GK: [59:40] They don’t get made fun of enough.

 

GR: [59:45] [inaudible] new movie with Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron has great Canadian jokes in it, and it’s all just about how nice they are.

 

JF: [59:52] Sounds good.

 

GR: [59:53] It is actually really funny.

 

GK: [59:54] That’s really funny.

 

GR: [59:54] I watched it on a plane and was surprised.

 

GK: [59:58] Surprised.

 

F: [59:59] Surprise on a plane.

 

GK: [1:00:00] It’s so pretty right now.

 

TW: [1:00:02] Yeah.  When the foliage was really popping, it was amazing.

 

GR: [1:00:07] Yeah, they have some good colors out here.

 

GK: [1:00:09] Yeah. It’s starting to die down, but –

 

GR: [1:00:12] It’s still so nice and golden.

 

GK: [1:00:14] – I love – yeah, we were in Acadia yesterday. It was really raining, but you’d see the pop of yellow. It was so intense in that gray sky. So cool.

 

MP: [1:00:25] Seemed like there was more yellow when the poplars were turning, but now that it’s mostly oak –

 

GK: [1:00:30] I know. They’re starting to go.

 

MP: [1:00:31] – it’s a reddish brown.

 

GK: [1:00:32] Yeah. There were still some poplars out at the park. I don’t know why, but definitely there were.

 

JF: [1:00:38] And the ones that – a lot of the leaves that have fallen –

 

MP: [1:00:39] Are you not from here?

 

GK: [1:00:40] I’m from Deer Isle.

 

MP: [1:00:42] “Out at the park.”

 

JF: [1:00:45] What was that face for? [laughter] Like, “You’re from Deer Isle?”

 

MP: [1:00:48] I’d never heard anyone say, “Out at the park.”

 

GK: [1:00:50] Out at the park. Yeah. It’s the park.

 

MP: [1:00:54] Most people are more specific, I guess.

 

GK: [1:00:57] Well, we were just driving through. I don’t even know where we were half the time. I have no idea. I have no idea. I’m not from here. I’m from Deer Isle. We didn’t come to MDI because you guys are crazy.

 

JF: [1:01:12] Were there many people out? Were you driving through or walking/hiking?

 

GK: [1:01:16] Yesterday, we were just driving because it was raining –

 

GR: [1:01:18] It was really raining.

 

GK: [1:01:19] – really hard. We just wanted to get some shots of stuff.

 

JF: [1:01:20] I biked a lot yesterday. It did get raining.

 

GK: [1:01:24] It really got serious around 3:00 –

 

JF: [1:01:27] I was home by then.

 

GK: [1:01:28] – which is when we were out there.

 

GR: [1:01:29] We were out in it for a while, and then we’re like, “Let’s just [inaudible] rest in our car.” Blame it on my [inaudible].

 

GK: [1:01:37] Pulling up behind people from North Carolina also taking photos.

 

GR: [1:01:41] It was really quiet in the park yesterday. Really nice.

 

GK: [1:01:45] It was really nice. We were stopping literally in the middle of the road. [laughter]

 

JF: [1:01:50] The people [inaudible] “You assholes.” [inaudible]

 

GK: [1:01:54] There was no one there.

 

GR: [1:01:56] We’d be like, “Let’s see if we can get away with it,” and I’d just step right by the driver’s side door and take a couple pictures. No one ever came up on us.

 

GK: [1:02:04] Yeah, there’s nobody out there.

 

GK: [1:02:05] I was keeping a close eye on the situation.

 

TW: [1:02:06] Are you running around in your camper this summer?

 

GK: [1:02:08] Yeah. Well, I’m here now in my camper.

 

TW: [1:02:11] Oh, you are.

 

GK: [1:02:12] At Val’s house.

 

TW: [1:02:14] Peacock?

 

GK: [1:02:15] Yeah.

 

TW: [1:02:16] She’s the best.

 

GK: [1:02:16] Yeah. [laughter] She is the best.

 

JF: [1:02:16] Her last name’s Peacock?

 

TW: [1:02:17] Yeah.

 

MP: [1:02:18] [inaudible] can I put my camper in your driveway?

 

GK: [1:02:24] [laughter] [inaudible] I am.

 

JF: [1:02:28] “You look so cool, Valerie.”

 

GK: [1:02:31] I gave it a month’s notice.

 

TW: [1:02:32] I used to babysit for (Guy?). He’s like [inaudible] want you to fix them and get really specific – “Okay, we got to change the head gasket.”

 

GK: [1:02:41] So, what was funny about that was we had the same van that these people were driving by and parked in our driveway. [laughter] We’re like, “We already have that.”

 

JF: [1:02:54] “We already have that. We’re not going to look any better with that thing.”

 

GK: [1:02:57] “We’ve got that 1983 Chevy van right here. Don’t need another one.”

 

JF: [1:03:00] That’s hilarious.

 

GK: [1:03:02] It was so funny. No, Val is great. Guy is great. Tobin is great. They’re a good family. I have my dog. Guy’s so into my dog, which is so cute because we’re not there today, and he’s going to take him out and throw the ball for him. So cute.

 

TW: [1:03:22] How long [until] you think they get a dog? They upgrade from fish to a dog?

 

GK: [1:03:25] They might because he’s obsessed. Yeah. Should we go back?

 

GR: [1:03:31] Yeah, I got what I need.

 

JF: [1:03:33] Can we get a picture of the three of us?

 

GR: [1:03:34] Yes.

 

JF: [1:03:35] [inaudible] here.

 

GR: [1:03:38] I was wondering about that.

 

GK: [1:03:40] Yeah, I know. That’s so cute.

 

GR: [1:03:43] I’m just going for a pretty straightforward family portrait here.

 

JF: [1:03:47] We are. [laughter]

 

GR: [1:03:48] Nothing too creative.

 

JF: [1:03:53] I’m going to show all your lobster buddies.

 

MP: [1:03:54] Teagan’s the husband –

 

GK: [1:03:55] That’s the kind of junk you got to do on the lobster boat. Mark’s like, “I’m going back.”

 

MP: [1:04:01] Just as long as everyone remembers Teagan’s the husband, according to the paper.

 

TW: [1:04:04] I got [inaudible] –

 

GR: [1:04:05] Actually, will you guys come over here, and I get [inaudible]?

 

GK: [1:04:07] You’re the husband?

 

TW: [1:04:09] Well, when did the MDI thing, they had a picture of us in the newspaper, and they said it was Joanna Fogg and her husband, Jesse.

 

JF: [1:04:15] Yeah, and her husband – no, it said, “Husband Teagan.”

 

TW: [1:04:17] Oh, husband Teagan.

 

JF: [1:04:18] She’s like, “I don’t know how I’m going to break it to my parents.”  I’m like, “Well, I guess you’re the dude here.”

 

GR: [1:04:26] Got it. You guys are the best. Oh, cute. Wait, hold on. This is fun. Alright. Now I really got it. Cool, thanks.

 

TW: [1:04:37] Sweet.

 

GK: [1:04:38] Thank you guys. We’ll send you some stuff. I have your email, so it’s easy enough.

 

GR: [1:04:45] Wait, what boat do I need to be on?

 

JF: [1:04:46] You [inaudible] that boat. Yeah, we’re going to take this one in [inaudible] …

 

MP: [1:05:08] You guys are leaving. Want me to take some iPhone pictures of you?

 

All: [1:05:10] [laughter]

 

JF: [1:05:10] Yeah, they would be way better than anything I just took.

 

GK: [1:05:14] Yeah, can you take my portrait out here?

 

GR: [1:05:16] Put on portrait mode and posing.

 

MP: [1:05:17] I took a bunch of pictures of my uncles and my cousins one day. And someone on Instagram was like, “I didn’t see anyone smiling at all.” Then I looked through all two hundred pictures, and no one smiled in any of them.

 

TW: [1:05:30] And it’s great because the caption is like, “Everyone was really happy when we got the moose.”

 

MP: [1:05:32] If anything, I accidentally caught someone smiling.

 

JF: [1:05:35] Nobody looks happy at all.

 

MP: [1:05:38] I was telling my uncle about it, and he was like, “There is no reason to be happy at that point in that week. I was tired and over it.” Teagan, we’ll probably go ditch this stuff before we start grading.

 

GK: [1:05:49] Thank you, guys. You’re on Instagram? I’ll follow you. You can see the project. Are you on it?

 

TW: [1:06:00] I am.

 

GK: [1:06:03] Yeah. Thank you so much.

 

GR: [1:06:05] Thank you.

 

GK: [1:06:06] It was fun. Maybe we’ll see you again.

 

TW: [1:06:08] Yeah. [inaudible] are everywhere …

 

MP: [1:06:29] You should have seen it the other day. Jesse brought the oysters to the Barnacle in this thing. He came back, and there were lines tied all over it everywhere. It was like, “Jesse, I could have spliced a dock line for that boat in less time than it took you to clean it up.”

 

JF: [1:06:45] The boys. I think this lives with you, though. I’ll leave it there.

 

MP: [1:06:48] Yeah, it stays on the [inaudible]; it doesn’t matter.

 

GK: [1:06:53] What’s this little thing?

 

JF: [1:06:56] That’s the fuel tank [inaudible] …

 

GK: [1:07:12] There’s a definite chill in the air. I’m glad we wore our big coats.

 

JF: [1:07:16] It’s [inaudible]

 

GK: [1:07:17] It’s getting there.

 

GR: [1:07:18] Is it overkill to wear my down coat?

 

GK: [1:07:20] No.

 

JF: [1:07:21] No.

 

GK: [1:07:22] It’s not.

 

JF: [1:07:24] Oh, it only gets worser.

 

GK: [1:07:25] Oh my god. I know. I’m kind of like –

 

JF: [1:07:27] Can you imagine being in a few inches of that water, forty-degree water?

 

GK: [1:07:32] I know. I don’t know. We’re coming back. We’re going to come back for some winter stuff, but I’m almost like – if we can brave it. It would be so cool to get the flip thing. I also think it’s cool to get these photos in this time period where people aren’t usually getting photos of Maine work. Part of the inspiration for this project was off-season stuff. We don’t do much in the summer because everybody sees that.

 

JF: [1:08:06] Yeah. No, this is good. And I appreciate this because there’s so much fear around what aquaculture is, and I feel we’re dehumanized as these people who are taking over the oceans. We’re just out here dealing with this raw weather, growing our little oysters.

 

GK: [1:08:27] And it’s not that different than buoys [inaudible].

 

JF: [1:08:31] And it’s condensed.

 

GK: [1:08:33] Yeah, it’s condensed.

 

JF: [1:08:33] I mean, so am I. I get it. That one person – that is the one person that I feel bad for because his view has changed for six months out of the year. But I give him some oysters.

 

GK: [1:08:48] Is your relationship with most of these people okay?

 

JF: [1:08:51] I mean, it was a little heated with some of them during the application process. But we’ve always been – I mean, one of the things that we were kind of coached to do is just to listen to people, and we were willing to modify or at least to certain extents to make it as low impact as possible. We do always try to be respectful because not just doing – we’re paving the way for other industry members as well, so I feel like everything we do out here reflects on every sea farmer.

 

GR: [1:09:26] Galen, can you come back here so I can get a shot of the boat with the oyster [inaudible}

 

GK: [1:09:34] I love these boats.

 

JF: [1:09:36] Me too. They’re fun. Sometimes we bring a picnic table out, and we come out and shuck oysters.

 

GK: [1:09:44] It’s so fun because they’re so stable. They’re so different than – I mean, lobster boats are like that. But little skiffs and outboards are like –

 

JF: [1:09:51] Oh, yeah. This is a big scow.

 

GK: [1:10:00] So, do you see folks clamming in here at all, or is it mostly just –?

 

JF: [1:10:05] Used to. We know the guy that really used to dig this area the most. They’re just gone. They’re just gone. Clam population is really bad right now. I want to give you guys some oysters from our shop. I can’t harvest today because there’s a closure, but I have some from a couple of days ago.

 

GK: [1:10:23] Oh, that’d be amazing. Greta’s like – [laughter]

 

GR: [1:10:33] That’s so sweet.

 

GK: [1:10:34] Look at those little guys.

 

JF: [1:10:36] [inaudible]

 

GK: [1:10:40] They’re so cute.

 

JF: [1:10:41] [inaudible]

[END OF INTERVIEW]