Are Wine, Oysters on Cape’s Future Economic Menu?

CREST HAVEN – If “days of wine and roses” evoke romantic thoughts, how about days of wine and oysters? Perhaps not quite as elegant, but vineyards and aquaculture may hold future economic benefits for Cape May County.
In his Feb. 11 report to peers Freeholder Will Morey told of several “significant meetings with two of the industries that our economic development program has been focusing on: wineries and oyster farmers.”
Some of those fields are easily seen; vineyards line roads throughout the county. Acres of oysters are under water, out of sight, until harvested.
“Owners of operations in these two new burgeoning fields are developing significant markets for themselves, and the county wants to support their efforts in every appropriate way,” Morey continued.
He met with a task force of county winery owners who, he said, “are putting together an application to obtain a separate and distinctive ‘AVA’ (American Viticulture Area) designation for a region that includes the entire county.”
Should the county receive that area approval, local winemakers would be allowed to use “AVA appellation on their labels so long as their wine is made from a designated percentage of grapes grown with the AVA,” Morey said.
That signature would show the public that wine was from a particular region. Morey said he was told the county “is uniquely suited to wine grapes, permitting our winemakers to grow varieties that would not survive in other areas.”
Further, Morey met with Dan Ward, a Rutgers University professor recently names director of the New Jersey Wine Research and Education Center.
“I believe the county can look forward to receiving good expert advice from him,” Morey said.
Another meeting Morey reported was that of Susan Payne, executive director of the State Agricultural Development Committee. That was “a very productive discussion regarding the county’s Farmland Preservation Program, and also addressed the state’s new governing of on-farm direct marketing efforts.”
Morey said it became “apparent during my conversation with Ms. Payne that lawmakers in Trenton are struggling with the very issues we identified as concerns,” and added he looks forward to “continued productive meetings” with Payne and her staff.
Eying aquaculture, Morey turned to county oyster farmers, many of whom are located within Middle Township.
He termed theirs a “very exciting new industry.”
“We are just beginning to explore the regulatory structure, and, frankly, we cannot help but wonder whether, as present configured, it might be hurting more than it helps,” he said.
He noted an “astonishing number of agencies that exercise some degree of authority over aquaculture, and their rules do not always seem to complement one another.”
Conversations have been ongoing with experts, such as Rutgers Aquaculture specialist Lisa Calvo, as well as oyster farmers to secure their opinions.
Morey said many of those oyster farmers are of an opinion that their industry may be best suited if regulated by the state Department of Agriculture, as it is in some other states.
Morey noted the county will continue to explore how to aid oyster farmers to locate or seek funding for a facility that could process or move their oysters along the distribution process.
Many of the oyster farmers have banded into a cooperative. “I understand that it was formalized in the past two weeks after literally years of work by all farmers,” said Morey.
From the county’s vantage, Morey said “We are very pleased if they have found methods of active in common for the benefit of all.”
Those co-op representatives met recently with Middle Township Mayor Timothy Donohue “who, like us, would like to see this new industry thrive. The great majority of oyster farms are located in Middle Township,” Morey said.
Also located on the township’s bayshore in Green Creek is the Rutger’s University Oyster Research Laboratory.
But the future of oysters is not centered only in Middle Township waters, just a few miles south on Delaware Bay in Lower Township, there is another Rutgers aquaculture center, as reported here last August.
There, at an Aug. 26 meeting of Lower Township Economic Development Advisory Committee, Danny Cohen, president of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, discussed the future of aquaculture; the cultivating of shellfish and fin fish under controlled conditions.
Rutgers Aquaculture Innovation Center in North Cape May hatches oysters that are later transplanted into tidal flats in Delaware Bay.
Tidal flats in Lower Township are located along the bay where the tide recedes one-quarter mile in low tide and returns covering the oysters at high tide, said Cohen. Oysters are placed in racks eight inches above the bottom of the bay.
The center was built to be a demonstration facility for both shellfish and some finfish.
“Aquaculture is the fastest growing segment of agriculture in the world,” stated Cohen at the time. “Almost 50 percent of seafood consumed is aquaculture.”
“You need to grow things that are indigenous,” Cohen stated.
Delaware Bay has a long history of farming oysters dating back to the 1800s. Disease wiped out the natural population of oysters in the 1950s.
Cohen stated the industry could be expanded by 10 percent increasing the amount of jobs from the current 30 to 300.
“We have an identity with a good name and we’re close to major markets,” stated Cohen.
He suggested creating an aqua tourism trail visiting hatcheries, oyster beds and restaurants.