Oyster Girl Oysters

   Saint Michaels, MD

The Oyster Girl Flipper: A New Approach to Aquaculture Management

Introducing our Patented Aquaculture Biofouling Management System

Oyster Girl Oysters announces a new oyster farming technology. Our recently patented "Aquaculture Biofouling Management using Axle Guided Cage Flipping System" is designed to address labor costs and efficiency in oyster farm maintenance. Developed by Lawrence Rudner and Willem Roosenberg, this approach offers an alternative method for managing oyster cages.

The Challenge: Biofouling in Oyster Farming

Growing oysters in surface cages has become common due to several advantages:

• Faster growth rates
• Improved flavor profiles
• Reduced predation
• Easier monitoring

However, this method faces a challenge: biofouling. This is the accumulation of marine organisms on submerged surfaces, such as barnacles and cushion moss, which can:

• Affect water flow
• Impact nutrient access
• Interfere with oyster growth

To address biofouling, regular cage flipping is practiced. Ideally, cages are flipped for at least a few hours every week. This exposes fouled surfaces to air, drying out and removing attached organisms. Traditional methods of cage flipping are labor-intensive and time-consuming, requiring physical effort and staff resources.

Our Solution: The Axle-Guided Cage Flipping System

Our patented system introduces a different method for managing biofouling. It consists of:

1. Hard plastic cages: equipped with a float on one side and a hollow axle on the other, such as FlipFarm Hexcyl Cages.
2. Longline Setup: Multiple cages are connected via a stationary longline that passes through the hollow axles.
3. Flipping Ramp: A specially designed ramp is attached to a workboat.
4. Flipping Process: As the workboat moves parallel to the longline, cages ascend the ramp. At the top, gravity causes the cages to flip.
5. Parallel Guide Rails: Two axle guide rails, mounted on the support structure, guide movement and limit lateral shifts.

See the Oyster Girl Flipper in action

Growing to drying position

Drying to growing position

 

We can flip 120 cages in under 60 seconds!!

Features of Our System

1. Labor: Aims to reduce the physical labor required for cage maintenance.
2. Efficiency: Designed to allow for more frequent flipping.
3. Cost: Intended to be affordable for small-scale oyster farmers.
4. Versatility: Can be used for raising, lowering, or moving cages horizontally for various operations.
5. Adaptability: The support structure can be mounted on floating platforms or built into independent floating structures.

Industry Support

Our project has received support from industry organizations:

• Chesapeake Bay Foundation: Provided seed money through the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance's "Oyster Innovation Awards" to develop a working version based on our prototype.
• The Nature Conservancy: Is supporting further refinement through their SOAR Resiliency Fund grant competition.

Interested?

The ramp can be made by a skilled aluminum welder for under $1000 and the reverse flipper for under $750. Refined blueprints of this system are available free of charge to individual oyster farmers for their own use. A royalty arrangement is available for organizations wishing to build this commercially. Our goal is to increase access to this technology for small-scale operations. Contact LMRudner [at] OysterGirl.us .