Turning the Tide: Long Island’s Oyster Week Boosts Aquaculture, Environment, and Local Menus
By Mariam Guirgis
Long Island’s Oyster Week has captured the attention of seafood lovers, environmental advocates, and local businesses, celebrating the region’s rich history of oyster farming and its growing role in revitalizing local waters.
This year’s event, a collaboration between restaurants across Long Island, oyster farmers, and environmental organizations, shines a spotlight on the importance of both tradition and sustainable aquaculture. This past weekend, oyster lovers also flocked to The Oyster Bay Oyster Festival, held now for more than 40 years.
For Morgan Flynn, owner of Salt & Barrel in Bay Shore, Oyster Week is an opportunity to highlight the uniqueness of his restaurant.
“We’re really Long Island’s only traditional oyster bar,” Flynn said.
Salt & Barrel’s commitment to serving fresh, local oysters has made it a beloved destination for seafood lovers. Carole Coles, a North Babylon resident, could not resist returning to Salt & Barrel to enjoy the oysters featured for Oyster Week.
“I love oysters, and I was coming last Tuesday, but they were closed, so I said to my girlfriend I want oysters tonight, and we came here,” she said. “Dollar oyster from three to six [PM] and a cold beer. The people are very nice, everybody is friendly [and] the bartenders are great. I have no complaints and I do complain about everything.”
But beyond the culinary aspect, Flynn sees the week as a way to support local oyster farmers, a relationship that became important during the pandemic.
“When COVID hit, we closed in March, we reopened in June… we never closed again,” Flynn explained. Despite the challenges, he remained committed to helping the local industry. “For about a year and a half, I only ordered from local oysters just to help them out.”
Now, Flynn sees Oyster week as an opportunity to focus on Long Island oysters. He noted that Salt & Barrel is expected to serve an impressive quantity of oysters.
“This week alone, we’ll go through 6 to 7,000 oysters,” Flynn said.
LI’s Oyster Farms
While restaurants like Salt & Barrel provide the frontline experience for diners, the oyster farms themselves are a crucial part of Long Island’s identity and ecological future.
Colby Doyon, the owner and operator of Fire Island Oyster Company, is one of the farmers who is deeply connected to both the culinary and environmental aspects of oyster farming.
Doyon explained that his farm benefits from its prime location near the Fire Island inlet, which brings in clean, nutrient-rich water. However, like many in the oyster farming business, Doyon faced a crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the oyster growing process continued, the market collapsed as restaurants were forced to shut down.
“COVID didn’t really affect the oyster growing process whatsoever, all it really did was kill our market because no restaurants were open anymore,” he explained.
He explained that at the time, creative partnerships with environmental organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and Save the Great South Bay provided an unexpected lifeline. Rather than selling his oysters to restaurants, Doyon was able to sell them for environmental restoration projects, where they were replanted to help clean local waters.
“They did a lot of environmental remediation projects,” Doyon said. “Instead of selling to a restaurant, I could sell them to one of these foundations which would then plant them.”
These projects are part of a broader effort to improve water quality on Long Island. Oysters act as natural water filters, with each oyster capable of filtering up to 50 gallons of water per day.
Organizations like Seatuck Environmental Association, a nonprofit focused on environmental conservation, have been vital in promoting the return of oyster shells to the waters, where they create habitats for new oysters. By encouraging restaurants to recycle shells, Seatuck and similar groups are helping to ensure that oyster populations can continue to grow, and the waters remain clean.
Josh Shortell, a manager at The Snapper Inn in Oakdale, recalled how local restaurants, oyster farmers, and groups like Seatuck first came together to bring Oyster Week to life for his restaurant.
“The first year that it started, the owners, Richard Bremer, his wife Kathy, the general manager and myself, we got in touch with the folks from WordHampton who run Restaurant Week and the uprise of the Long Island growers and oyster farmers,” Shortell said. “First year was a great success, so… we’re back for round two, and it’s exciting.”
Doyon also shared the importance of this kind of collaboration with restaurants.
“I feel if there are more of these outreach things at times where there are dips that it would kind of reinfuse interest into the industry especially because oysters are honestly at their best right now,” he said.
Oyster Week is Raising Awareness
While Oyster Week is a chance for locals and visitors to enjoy delicious food, it’s also a moment to raise awareness about the importance of oysters in both the economy and the environment.
“It’s a huge ecosystem service, which is sort of just a byproduct of farming shellfish,” said Joseph Finora, a managing member of the Hampton Oyster Company. “It’s an extremely climate-friendly source of protein, the most efficient form of protein production on earth.”
For Finora and others in the industry, the event is about more than just selling oysters. It’s about reconnecting Long Islanders with their heritage and demonstrating the role oysters can play in improving water quality and sustaining local ecosystems.
“The hope is to help both the growers get a little bit of spotlight for this industry that’s growing out here but also to help restaurants have a promotional opportunity,” Finora said, emphasizing the potential for local oysters to once again become a staple on New York City menus.
Long Island’s Oyster Week has quickly become an event that highlights the resilience of the local oyster industry and the essential role these shellfish play in maintaining a healthy environment while also forming mutually beneficial relationships for both restaurants and local oyster farms.
“We’re hoping to, no pun intended, turn the tide on bringing back something that was historically a staple in New York,” Finora said.
Mariam Guirgis is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.
