In September 2017, The City of Providence will serve as the backdrop to the 3rd annual Ocean State Oyster Festival.
More than 6.4 million Rhode Island oysters were sold for consumption in 2013, according to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council’s (CRMC) 2013 Annual Status Report on Aquaculture in Rhode Island. Local growers raked in more than $4.3 million and employment by farm workers grew by over 20%. The number of aquaculture farms in the state has increased from 37 in 2010 to over 50 in the last year. This sector of the Ocean State’s economy is only now beginning to realize the potential this sector can, and will have, for years to come.
Rowan Jacobsen, author of A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America, may have summed up the region’s oyster industry best when he stated: “We can thank the jumbled geology of Massachusetts and Rhode Island for the amazing variety of oysters found there. As the area awakens to the glory of its local oysters, more and more growers are investing the time and energy to grow premium oysters, knowing that the market will reward them. Quite a turnaround from the DOA status of the New England industry just decades ago.”
Together, let’s help sustain this important and lasting legacy by supporting our local oyster farmers and their ecosystem, Narragansett Bay and its estuaries! The Ocean State Oyster Festival’s goal is to help honor and preserve this legacy.
For more information please visit: http://oysterfestri.com/