Oyster farming growing with rising tide of demand

Draped in morning fog, the water near the mouth of the Cousins River was dark and quiet last week as Eric Horne and Valy Steverlynck motored upstream in their 22-foot work skiff. Below the surface, invisible to boaters, tens of thousands of oysters rested on the estuary floor. Horne and Steverlynck knew where to find these shellfish beds. Oyster farmers, they’ve spent three years raising these bivalves, since each was no bigger than a grain of sand.