The Cotuit Oyster Company takes great care in cultivating our oysters. We start by taking oyster seed that is approximately 1mm in size, and placing it into our floating upweller system, known as the “FLUPSY.”

The “FLUPSY” is a 20’X10’ floating dock section constructed with hatch doors through the deck so that the shellfish can be accessed periodically for tending. Under the dock, shellfish are held in eight 2’X2’ upweller silos. The flow to the eight upwellers is maintained by an economical ½ HP pump which forces up to 100 gallons per minute through each upweller. This flow brings new food to the shellfish and carries away their waste, permitting the seed to be grown under optimal conditions in a bed up to 18" deep.

Each of the eight-upweller units can hold up to 60 liters of shellfish seed. The upwellers can be fitted with different mesh bottoms to accommodate different sized seed. Each upweller silo can hold several million 1MM seed or 50,000 10-millimeter seed.

The upweller is the best method for handling small seed right out of the hatchery (1-3MM) until they grow large enough to be field planted in their final grow out site 12-36MM depending upon species. During this nursery phase it is critical to protect the seed from predators such as fish and crabs while proving ample food for the delicate seed.

Under forced up flow conditions the seed will grow at high densities much faster and more uniformly than can be expected in passive flow conditions. During the growing season clams in grown upwellers can grow more than a millimeter a week, more than doubling in total volume each week. Oysters in these conditions have recorded growth rates as high as 5 millimeters in a single week, increasing their total volume as much as five to ten-fold.