Norwalk mayor opens oyster gallery
Norwalk, a popular destination for fresh seafood, recently opened a gallery in City Hall featuring artifacts from an age-old industry: oyster farming. Mayor Harry Rilling showcased the display, recognizing the business that still thrives.
“Norwalk is known for its oyster seaport and it”™s taken on its own identity ”” not only in Connecticut but around the country,” Rilling said about his first gallery, which will stay open until June 30. “It”™s become such an industry in Norwalk that it”™s self-promoted.”
Throughout the gallery, text panels describe fun facts about oysters. A tall China cabinet contains weathered and faded photographs of Norwalk”™s dock and oyster boats taken from the 1930s. An entire wall of photographs taken by local photographer Peter Massini is dedicated to illustrating how the process of harvesting oysters has evolved over time.
The idea behind creating an educational venue is to communicate ways the public can help conserve the water quality and promote safe farming techniques for oyster harvesters. During a time when supply is low but demand is high, the gallery is intended to propagate oyster-related activity ”” both as a food source and employment opportunity. Notable for its nutritional value and appealing to customers as hors d”™oeuvres or entrées on restaurant menus, oysters are growing in demand more than ever, said Sooo-z Mastropietro, a local curator and researcher who set up the mayor”™s oyster gallery.
Norm Bloom, owner of family-owned Norm Bloom & Sons, one of Norwalk”™s many oyster harvesting companies, said the demand for shellfish has increased over the years as eating oysters becomes a popular summer pastime. Yet, over the past few years, the supply of oysters has leveled off after two major hurricanes and the recent polar vortex.
“These next few years might get slower,” Bloom said. “We haven”™t had a set in a while.”
Bloom uses the word “set” to describe the process of oysters sticking onto an underwater bed of crushed shells on coastal areas sectioned off into farming territories. Farming oysters is a three-year process, which requires careful monitoring of their growth.
“We plant shells in the water and the oysters spawn,” Bloom said. “When the larvae settles on the bottom, it hangs on the shell and grows off of it. Then as it grows, you got to thin it down and send the smaller stuff back in the water and let it grow on its own.”
He added that oysters are caught and released about four times before they”™re ready to sell. And the rule is you can only sell oysters after they reach a certain level of maturity. Everything else must get thrown back into the water. The oyster farming industry is sustainable as it uses recycled shells and releases oysters produced from its own beds.
Before a storm hits or during cold weather, Bloom said he takes his 100-year-old boat onto the Long Island Sound to make sure oysters are moved inside the coast and protected from extreme cold and winds. Usually, oysters grow best in warmer months when the water reaches 50 degrees, Bloom said. Any warmer than that makes the oysters stop growing. Ideally, oysters are planted in the summer and harvested before the winter.
Through the mayor”™s gallery, Norwalk oyster harvesters hope to convey the message that it”™s important to protect the water from pollutants and encourage the city to fix broken pipes and storm drains, especially with runoff that readily flows back into the harbors.
“The state has a great program,” Bloom said. They do water testing. I also work with groups like Soundkeeper and Harbor Watch that help monitor things like broken pipes. It”™s about education and getting groups together to be aware of the resources out there.”