Episode 30: SharkBite Oysters -- Navigating Nature's Challenges with Sam Walsh

In this episode of OYSTER-ology, I get back together with Sam Walsh of SharkBite Oysters. Sam discusses his journey from studying marine biology to becoming an oyster farmer in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He shares how oyster farming's sustainability and lifestyle benefits drew him in after experiences in finfish and shrimp farming. Sam highlights his growth from a small operation to a million oysters in the water.  He talks about the unique challenges of oyster farming, starting with having to build his own boat, to fighting barnacles and dealing with hurricanes. He also discusses the importance of high-quality, clean oysters and his catering ventures that connect his farm to the community. Through this engaging conversation the true essence of SharkBite Oysters is revealed through Sam’s sense of humor, enthusiasm and authenticity., leaving open the question: will he complete the Oyster-A-Day-For-A-Year challenge?

00:00 Introduction and Breakfast Talk

00:39 Guest's Background and Early Career

03:03 Transition to Oyster Farming

06:36 Starting the Oyster Farm

08:55 Challenges and Growth

17:08 Hurricane Preparedness

21:45 The Art of Scraping Barnacles

24:06 Catering and Community Engagement

25:12 Farm Tours and Expansion

27:47 Distribution and Marketing Strategies

29:17 The Perfect Oyster

34:32 Challenges in Oyster Farming

38:32 Future Plans and Personal Stories

Links:

Sharkbite Oysters website (https://sharkbiteoysters.com/)

Link to Sam’s Instagram An Oyster-A-Day Campaign:

Sam's Boat: The Lumberyard Skiff

Please be sure to Like and Follow OYSTER-ology wherever you listen to podcasts, and tell others about it. Every positive mention of it helps more people find the podcast!

Transcript

Shark Bite Oysters: Navigating Nature's Challenges with Sam Walsh

[00:00:00]

[Bubbles]

Kevin: How did you find this, this spot and how did you choose to do it?

Sam Walsh: It kind of found me. Um…oh, that's good. Washed down an oyster with some coffee. 

Kevin: Coffee and oysters. Breakfast of champions, man.  

[Bubbles]

Kevin: Welcome to OYSTER-ology, a podcast about oysters, aquaculture, and everything from spat to shuck. If you're involved in anything to do with oysters or the waters they grow in, or you just love to slurp them down at the raw bar, this is the podcast for you. I'm your host and the Foodwalker, Kevin Cox. I first heard about my guest, Sam Walsh of SharkBite Oysters through his social media year long oyster a day campaign. This was a [00:01:00] young guy with a tiny oyster farm just getting started operating on a shoestring, but with an energy and enthusiasm that was immediately memorable. So I took a field trip to New Smyrna, Florida to meet Sam and see for myself just how good the oysters at this little startup farm really were. It was that sunny morning that I met the guy who built his own boat in order to cultivate his little patch of bottom on Florida's east coast. With a Master's in Marine Biology and experience farming finfish and shrimp, Sam was determined to establish a boutique oyster farm that he and his fiancé, Hannah, could build a life around.

That was almost three years ago, and since then, SharkBite Oysters has grown into one of just four successful Indian River Lagoon oyster farms, now producing as many as a million oysters. Sitting at a picnic table that morning drinking coffee and slurping oysters with Sam, I saw the spark of enthusiasm that is the soul of SharkBite Oysters, and I've watched it blossom into something special ever since.

So, settle in with your own cup of joe and [00:02:00] pile of perfect oysters to hear about taking risks with mother nature; the art of scraping barnacles; where to go on spring break; the difference between fish farming and oyster farming; 50 bucks and a boat named Booby; oyster Pilates; the Oyster-A-Day Challenge; the beauty of a boutique oyster; and finding work life balance by letting Nature take the wheel with youthful and wise beyond his years marine biologist-turned fish farmer-turned boutique oyster farmer, Sam Walsh.

Kevin: Sam Walsh, SharkBite Oysters, it's so fantastic to have you again as my guest, on OYSTER-ology. I saw you when you were still a young fledgling company when I went down to New Smyrna, and you have grown exponentially since then. You're all over the internet. People are raving about you. But before you tell me about SharkBite Oysters, I want you to tell me a little bit about yourself, your background and how you got involved in this whole [00:03:00] oyster thing before the company you started.

Sam Walsh: Hey, Kevin. Uh, it's great to be back. So, yeah, a little bit about me. You know, I'm an outdoorsy guy. I've always loved being outside, working with the environment. I, uh, I spent a lot of time growing up, in the Chesapeake working with crabs and oysters, and, You know, I loved it and I wanted to find a fulfilling career that had to do with, biology and the marine world. And I think I found it, you know,

Kevin: Now before you got involved in oysters, you were having some experience with finfish. Tell me a little bit about that.

Sam Walsh: Yeah, so I, I took a real long roundabout way of getting into oysters. It started with, yeah, marine finfish at the University of Miami. I was getting my undergrad there and I was studying marine biology, and I was kind of looking for a path that had a career that wasn't just strictly research, you know? I wanted to, I really wanted to get out there and work and build something. And, I found aquaculture and, I thought that was the. And still to this [00:04:00] day think that's the great connection of my passion for, for science and marine biology and, building, a career, you know, and I worked with Mahi Mahi, cobia Nassau grouper, are all sorts of really, really cool species while I was at Miami.

And then, um, those guys at the hatchery helped me get a job, at a new farm down in Homestead, Florida. And we started farming, uh, triple tail in Pompano after I graduated. I knew it was a blast. It was short-lived. That farm didn't last too long, unfortunately, but it, uh, it kind of lit a fire. It sparked something in me and I, uh, I really wanted to stick with it. So I started working with freshwater fish species. I was building farms in Europe, and, uh, what I'd realized with all these fish that I was farming was that. the real cash maker, the cash crop in there was the feed, you know, whoever was selling all these farms, the food to feed the fish was definitely, sitting pretty.

So I wanted to learn a little more about that. And I, uh, I looked into going back to school and I [00:05:00] found, the University of Auburn, and went back to school to get my, uh, master's degree. And I was doing research and, and feed nutrition for aquaculture. So I was working with red snapper and shrimp and, uh, I was doing my research down in Gulf Shores. And while I was down there, I kind of stumbled upon oyster farming. And my professor still makes fun of me to this day that, uh, I spent all these years researching. fish and, and shrimp and nutrition. And then I started farming oysters, you know, and it's, it's an, a species that doesn't require any food at all.

That's right. At least, at least nothing that I need to provide. So I, I thought that was a lot of fun. But what was the beauty at Auburn was that I gotta meet Bill Walton, the, the doctor of oysters himself, you know, and, he was paramount. He was, he was crucial in me kind of deciding I wanted to start this farm, uh, volunteering and, and actually working with the Navy Cove Oyster Farm in Gulf Shores, Alabama, that was huge [00:06:00] too. Uh, I fell in love with the lifestyle, the benefits of oyster farming, and, I decided, you know, I'd never want to farm another shrimp in my life. I think, oysters is the way to go. And I just started, uh, getting the gears turning and figuring out how I'm gonna start my own oyster farm.

Kevin: Well, it's so interesting, too, because the difference between fin fish farming and I assume shrimp farming as compared to oyster farming is so great because like you say, you know, the whole feeding thing and antibiotics and all of that kind of thing. I mean, do you feel that oyster farming somehow feels different to you than that

Sam Walsh: From, from a lifestyle perspective more than anything, you know, I think, uh, oysters and clams I'm sure are probably the most sustainable protein you could farm on the planet. I mean, yeah. Period. Yeah. but, you know, I still have a, a piece of my heart for the rest of aquaculture I do love, uh, thin fish farming and shrimp farming. And, uh, you know, that that's a sustainable protein too, [00:07:00] when it's done right. Um, but it, it's, it's the lifestyle difference that even if you're farming a shrimp or a fish sustainably. Uh, you gotta feed 'em every single day. You gotta, you gotta make sure none of their tanks are overflowing. Or if there's an alarm at two in the morning because oxygen levels are low, you wake up, you go out there and you, You throw your giant pumps in the pond and you try to get oxygen for your shrimp. You know, it's, that doesn't happen with my oysters. When, when I clock out on Friday, I'm, I'm not going back to the farm until Monday. I mean, unless there's a hurricane coming and I need to go sink my cages, I'm not going. It's, it's, mother nature takes the wheel and I, I love that. You know, it's, I leave a lot more risk out there. Like I can, I can lose my farm to, to mother nature, but it, it's also allows me to take a day off, which mm-hmm. I, I, I was really, even when I did take a day off, I was never really taking a day off from the shrimp [00:08:00] farm.  Or the, or the fish farms I was working at.

Kevin: That is one of the true beauties of oysters is basically if you provide the right environment for them to thrive in, they take care of themselves and they grow themselves,you know, generally, Right. So you started out doing, aquaculture with fish and shrimp, discovered oysters. But how did you end up in New Smyrna. What's that connection?

Sam Walsh: So yeah, that was, uh, Spring Break 2016. That was a, uh, it, it was actually, it was really fun. You know, we, uh, one of my good friends from college, she grew up in New Smyrna Beach and, she invited a bunch of us from the team to, to drive up to the new Smyrna for a spring break. And it was the first time I've even heard the name New Smyrna Beach. and that was part of the, the, the allure, you know, the charm of this town is that not everyone's heard of it. It's a, it's got its small town vibes. It's it's really, a gem of the east coast of Florida where pretty much everything has been developed. It's either [00:09:00] condos or strip malls or parking lots. New Smyrna has really got a small town vibe to it still. It's got a national park, it's got the Indian River Lagoon, specifically the Mosquito Lagoon in our area. And we just, we went kayaking. We, we hit the waterfront restaurants and it's just. To this day, it's probably one of my favorite places on earth. I don't need to go anywhere else.

Kevin: It does have that one little claim to fame though, right? The “SharkBite Capital of the World.”

Sam Walsh: Oh yeah. I've heard that once or twice. You know, I, it's just a coincidence that we named the farm SharkBite Oysters.

Kevin: Yeah, of course. Right? There'd be no other reason. No.

Sam Walsh: Right. But, you know, they're like, they're little bites. So it's not like I named the company in, in bad taste. Uh, at least knock on wood. I hope they're all small bites from, well, I, from now on as well.

Kevin: And I love your logo because you've really capitalized on the SharkBite and sort of, the Jaws thing with your raws logo. I'm gonna. Put some links to them on the [00:10:00] webpage so people can see. 'cause you're

Sam Walsh:  Oh, that's great. Yeah, I got, I got the raw shirt on right now. I see that.

Kevin: And it's awesome, man. it's a great logo, I love it. I appreciate, yeah,

Sam Walsh: That's one of the, uh, the superpowers in starting the farm was, my fiance Hannah. She's a marketing director and a graphic designer. And, she's been helping me out from day one, making it look like I'm not running this farm out of my garage.

Kevin: Which you are Right?

Sam Walsh: For now. For now.

Kevin: So let's talk about that. tell me a little bit about how you started the farm. I mean, when I met you, you were small, you were just getting going. You had, uh, this little tiny boat and, now you've, you've grown a lot since then. So tell me how you started the farm and what it was like then and kind where it is today.

Sam Walsh: Yeah, so I mean, I'd never started a business before, so we were really starting this on a shoestring budget and just figuring it out piece by piece.

I was watching YouTube videos of, of how other oyster farmers and Bill Walton's got some great YouTube videos that [00:11:00] explain so much. Um, and one of the crucial things you need to start an oyster farm usually is a, is a good work boat. And, uh, I didn't have that, I never even owned a motorboat in my entire life.

So, uh, started doing some research and I found, some plans for something called the Lumberyard Skiff. Uh, they're 50 bucks online if you want a, a set of the plans and you just get some construction lumber and marine grade plywood and you've got yourself a, a pretty stout work boat. it's a 16 foot wooden boat.

And it's a beauty. I love that boat so much. Uh, we named it affectionately Booby painted it blue, and it's probably the most recognizable boat in our area of New Smyrna. I mean, we'll pull up to the, the waterfront restaurant park it next to a quarter million dollar boat and the crowds around Booby and not the, uh, the pathfinder there.

You know, it's, uh, it, it really is a, an amazing boat. I use it more for fishing these days 'cause we've outgrown it, but it, it, it got the farm started, you know, [00:12:00] I mean, we, we were climbing over each other to, to work outta that thing, but Right. Uh, it helped me, uh, afford the, uh, the 24 foot pontoon boat that we turned into a work barge. We're working out it now. And who knows, maybe, uh, we'll expand from there soon.

Kevin: What a beautiful thing though, that you can actually start an oyster farm with a $50 plan and some scrap wood boat and build it into what you are today.

Sam Walsh: I appreciate that. Well, it's not quite scrap wood. I did have to cough up a bit of cash for the, uh, for the lumber.

Kevin: Okay, fair enough.

Sam Walsh: Probably the cheapest farm boat you can really start with.

Kevin: So now you're in New Smyrna, but technically, you're in the Mosquito Lagoon, which is part of the, Indian River Lagoon, right?

Sam Walsh: That's correct. Yeah. it's a huge estuary made up of the mosquito lagoon, the Indian River and the Banana River. I think it's the [00:13:00] most biodiverse estuary in North America. It's a really beautiful area.

Kevin: Yeah. I thought it was gorgeous and one of the things that, I still scratch my head about is when you look at how natural and beautiful it is, how pristine the water appears to be. It's sort of like the subtropical Chesapeake Bay. It should be loaded with oysters and farms.

Sam Walsh: You'd think, you know, I mean, it's, uh, part of the reason I even wanted to start the Oyster Farm in New Smyrna was because I saw how abundant, the, wild oyster reefs are in the Indian River Lagoon. Um, it's really tough to start an oyster farm in our area and just the east coast of Florida in general, uh, as you know, the, the whole industry in the south is pretty new and, uh, it kind of got its start in Florida, in the Gulf.

And so the focus for the state and for startups and farms was the Gulf. And so getting a, a lease to get your farm started in the Gulf [00:14:00] is a completely different process for the most part. Uh, they already have leases available. They've, they've been marked out surveyed and everything on the East Coast.

Uh, you gotta start from scratch. We gotta go out there and make sure there's no, no. Live oysters on the bottom, not a single sprig of sea grass on the bottom. Uh, and we just, we gotta do all that ourselves for just a chance that, uh, once you go down the laundry list of bureaucracy, that'll be approved.

Kevin: So the permitting process is really cumbersome, it sounds like

Sam Walsh: For a guy who has no idea what he's doing, starting his oyster property,

Kevin: right.

Sam Walsh: Yeah, I'm sure. Honestly, I'm sure if someone who's used to going through processes like that, it's probably a piece of cake. But for me, man, it took me two years to get two acres. And I mean, still, to this day, I'm, I'm super grateful, that the Indian River Oyster Company, they were the first farm on the East coast of Florida and also in New Smyrna Beach.

Um, they have. Seven [00:15:00] plus acres. and they don't use all the acres. So they actually were able to sublease, uh, some of their acreage to me. So I was able to start farming immediately. 

while I was going through that process. So I wasn't necessarily in a time crunch, but I think that's probably one of the biggest, drawbacks, is that if someone's trying to start a a business, it's gonna take 'em two years in essence to, to even plant their first oyster.

And then they're gonna have to wait what another probably six to eight months at the quickest to get their first crop to market. And I mean, that's honestly all combined still quicker than farming an oyster up in the northeast.

Kevin: But

Sam Walsh: it's still, it's the risk is piling up if that's your sole source of, income.

Kevin: So you are all off bottom growing. Is that right?

Sam Walsh: That's right. Yep.

Kevin: are you growing just, Virginicas or are you growing any other varieties of oysters?

Sam Walsh: Uh, right now, just [00:16:00] Virginicas

 you know, the, the market and the demand for our oysters is so high that people want Virginicas.

Kevin: So tell me a little bit about your off bottom, like what kind of equipment you're using for that.

Sam Walsh: So yeah, we, uh, we use all, six pack cages. That's, that's what I learned, cut my teeth on with the Navy Cove guys. I just, I saw that these cages are the perfect mix between, being able to just use momentum to, to flip them up to, to dry the oysters out, keep 'em clean, uh, keeping the farm organized, uh, but also just being robust and that these, this gear doesn't fall apart like a lot of other gear does over time, especially in tough climates like we have here in Florida.

Kevin: And I suppose because they're floating cages, you're getting a lot of natural tumbling done by the current and the waves and weather and that sort of thing.

Sam Walsh: Yes and no. I mean, we, we've been hit by three hurricanes since we started, so I think that gave us a, a good bit of [00:17:00] tumbling. But for the most part actually we have a pretty low energy environment.

I mean, actually, so the last hurricane, last summer that hit us, Milton, um, I went out probably way sooner than I should have, uh, after the hurricane passed over and I went out in the little wooden boat. Uh, and even with probably still 50 mile per hour winds going, uh, the waves were maybe two feet max

Back, back in our area. So for the most part, the biggest waves that'll hit our oysters are boat wakes. But luckily my lease is right by a, a pretty busy boat traffic area. So, uh, people think like, oh, do you want me to slow down? I'm like, no, go ahead and go, go ahead and hit ' em

Kevin: What do you do when a hurricane is coming? there's gotta be risk to your gears. So how do you deal with approaching hurricanes or big storms?

Sam Walsh: You know, it's, it's choosing the right gear so these cages that I bought, they can sink. And so if a [00:18:00] hurricane's coming, I'm constantly watching, you know, I'm checking the forecast and seeing specifically if there's gonna be a storm surge, because that's what would probably do the most damage to my farm, is if I didn't sink the cages and the tide rises 10 feet.

Who, who knows, you know?

Kevin: Yeah.

Sam Walsh: And the, the floats pull my anchors out, and then I have just a line of cages floating around. Uh, that would be devastating. So, for the first, hurricane that hit us a couple years ago, Ian, I did sink my cages. Uh, it's such a pain in the ass. Oh, well I was gonna ask,

Kevin: like, okay, sinking them may be hard, but getting them up is probably even harder.

Oh my God. So how do you do all of that?

Sam Walsh: You gotta get 'em up quick because like, that will, that will save your, your gear. I mean, sinking them, they're gonna be fine on, on the bottom. They will, they were not, they will not blow away. They're not gonna float away from the bottom.

Right. Uh, the issue [00:19:00] Yeah. Becomes picking 'em up and, I mean, there's currents and everything, so maybe a cage flipped over and, and the oysters are then in the sand, in the mud, and they will just get buried and they will die quick if you don't get to them. So we want to get them back up to the surface the day after the hurricane.

Wow. But the waters are still high. So when Ian came, I mean, in a lease that I can usually walk around with the water up to my waist, it was over my head. And, we just had to jerry rigged some stuff to, to pull the cages up. And it was my dad and I at that point. We were just, at one point we were both in the water, just heads underwater trying to hold a cage over our head, trying to get some of the water poured out of it.

And, uh, I think,

Kevin: is that what you do? Do you turn 'em over so you kind of empty the water out of the pontoons or do you pump air into them or,

Sam Walsh: we'll try just about anything. I've seen a lot of stuff tried. I've seen, uh, scuba bottles out there, you know, hooker eggs.

Right. Um, we did it like [00:20:00] caveman, I'll be honest. But we, uh, there, there are definitely some better ways to do it. Uh, I mean, we, I could have installed a davit, you know, it was just early in the, the farm, so I didn't wanna spend another dime on anything.

Kevin: Yeah.

Sam Walsh: Uh, but. It also prevented me from sinking the, the cages for the next two hurricanes.

I came, I didn't sink 'em for Nicole. No kidding. Didn't sink 'em for mil. It's just, it, I, the wind seems to not mess with the cages too much. Um, it's really, from my experience, the storm surge is at least in our system what would be extremely devastating to the farm. But I'm also gonna knock on wood and I think I just got lucky.

Um, it's gonna be a gamble, I think every time we have a storm coming our way. I'm just gonna flip a coin and see, am I gonna flip these cages down or am I gonna ride this one out?

Kevin: Tell me a little bit about what kind of issues you have with invasive species like, barnacles drills, [00:21:00] sponges, that sort of thing. is that a big, concern of yours on your farm?

Sam Walsh: I mean, the sponges, since we dry our oysters regularly, we never really have issues with boring sponge. knock on wood, we don't have any, drills that I know of. Uh, but yeah, the barnacles, I don't know if I've ever seen a place ever that has more barnacles than we do

 it's just, they're, they're awful man. I mean, it's multiple times a week during June and July. It, it just gets covered. And so what we usually do is we'll try to flip the oysters up so that the sun can dry off the gear and dry off the oysters and kill the, uh, the baby barnacles on them.

Uh, but it, it's just not enough. So, I mean, with doing it multiple times a week, even, we can't, it can't kill 'em all. And I have some. Oysters that are just so covered in barnacles that you will not even see the oyster and really

Kevin: that quickly, huh?

Sam Walsh: It's it's so quick. And then once they're on there, [00:22:00] they're on there, you know?

Kevin: how do you get rid of the barnacles when they're on the oyster?

Sam Walsh: that's, uh, that's usually our, our favorite summer job. It's, uh, it's, it's brutal because, you know, we, we built our brand around having just the most beautiful oyster we could possibly produce.

Yeah. And And we don't want to sell an oyster that's covered in barncles. We want to sell something that's beautiful because we want someone to look at it and be like, Hey, that's a SharkBite. Or, Hey, that looks like a SharkBite, because that is just so clean and beautiful, you know, so when we get oysters covered in barnacles, we will scrape the barnacles off every single one of those oysters.

And at this point it's, we've scraped. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of oysters by hand. And it's a time sink. it's a labor cost, but it's worth it for the brand, I think. Yeah. our customers and our chefs, they notice the difference and it's worth every second that we take to, to scrape those barnacles and the numb, bruised hands that we have from just smacking 'em all day long.[00:23:00]

Kevin: Do you have to do it multiple times in, in the life cycle of an oyster? Because if you do it early in the life stage, then they're just gonna grow back. But it may be too hard to get 'em off if you wait till they're fully grown. How do you deal with that?

Sam Walsh: Right. I mean, we kind of used to do that, and I've changed strategy.

I've doing it once now, but, the barnacle season is summer, so I mean June, July and August, That's. Just barnacles, barnacles, barnacles. The rest of the year is pretty good. And just our normal desiccation schedule that keeps us on top of it and it should be fine.

so it's really, it's our summer oysters. Um, before we, we will get 'em all ready and we'll even grade 'em by size. And then when I know it's about a week before I harvest them, we get out there with the, the scrapers and we'll hit 'em. Because honestly, this year the barnacles were so bad that I would scrape them on Friday.

Uh, we'd get all the next week's [00:24:00] oysters ready for harvest, and by Thursday of the following week we had an insane set on almost all of those oysters. Like they were completely covered, again with, within less than a week. And they were, they were sizable. It wasn't just like tinsy tiny barnacles that you could say, ah, they won't notice.

Like no, they were, they were like lentil sized barnacles all over the oyster. Wow. So it's, we, we gotta figure out something. But I don't know if I'm smart enough to, to be the one who figures out how to cure barnacles, so I'm just gonna keep smacking 'em off with a crowbar.

Kevin: Tell me a little bit about, your catering side of your business

Sam Walsh: So yeah, it, it's probably one of my favorite parts of the business. it's a great source of income, but it's also a great, marketing arm of our company will. Set up, oyster festivals with local breweries. we'll shuck at weddings, we'll shuck at just private parties, uh, local business events.

And it's just a great way for us to just get in front [00:25:00] of the community, talk about our product, help people fall in love with local seafood. And it's just so fun. You know, I can shuck oysters all day long, and it's not a minute of work for me. it's just a blast. So, it's grown from just doing one or two parties every once in a while.

And now, I don't have a single weekend in November, without, a party or, a big shucking event or a wedding. and I love it, you know, I think it, it builds on this oyster renaissance we're in that I think, a lot of people are excited about fresh local raw oysters that are coming from boutique oyster farms.

And, I love to stoke that fire and build the flame.

Kevin: do you do farm tours? Are people interested in seeing how you grow these oysters?

Sam Walsh: Very, I get, people asking about tours all the time. I used to do them a little bit. Um, but now the, as the farm's growing, I've just, I just don't have any time for it, unfortunately [00:26:00] because, I mean, I love doing that too.

That's just such a great way to make someone just fall in love with the product and yeah, and just the industry in general, uh, because not a lot of people even know about oyster farming and, and that it exists or, or what it is. And, and so showing people an oyster farm, it's a brand new experience for so many people and it's, it's cool to be there for that.

Um, but we're working on it. I, I'm talking with a couple buddies who got their captain's license and, uh, we're just trying to figure out, uh, the best timing and the, the best way to, to set it up so people can have a really good experience and, and, and come out there feeling like they, uh, they got a great tour.

Kevin: when I met you, I don't recall how many oysters you had in the water at the time, but what would you say now your oyster population is

Sam Walsh: I think we, we were probably 10 times the size we, when, when we met. Uh, no kidding.

We, we probably had about a hundred thousand or so oysters in the water. Right. And now we've got a little over a million in the water

Kevin: How long have you been in business now?

Sam Walsh: Three years. Three years. That's [00:27:00]

Kevin: unbelievable.

Sam Walsh: it's been a, it's been a tough one, but it's, it's a, it's an exciting ride.

You know, there's nothing I'd rather be doing. it's just been nonstop. But, uh, you know, the, the way I get through it is if I'm constantly working, than I don't have time to think about all the chaos, you know?

Kevin: with a million or million plus oysters in the water, how large is your farm crew?

Sam Walsh: it depends. I've got, uh, all part-time on the farm right now, other than me. but so I got my parents, they help out. They're, they're both retired and they love coming out and working on the farm. they will come out as often as they can. Sometimes I just have to say like, you guys need to take the day off.

Like yesterday was, was back breaking. Like my back hurts. I can't imagine how yours feels like. Please take the day off. Uh, no, I've got, I've got a couple other guys, one of my best friends growing up, Alex, he just moved down here. he's helping me out on the farm. Got, a guy Jet. he's been helping me out a lot.

My buddy Rogers delivering to [00:28:00] Jacksonville and St. Augustine right now. And hopefully we can expand that territory here soon. But, so still a small team and hopefully we can just keep it growing. Hopefully we can get more of these guys full time and, uh, just, you know, build a community, build the, the career path.

Kevin: Yeah. what kind of distribution do you have right now Are you selling locally or beyond that?

Sam Walsh: so we're doing local, uh, just a few restaurants locally. Uh, we expanded into Jacksonville and St. Augustine and I love that market.

There's just a ton of amazing fine dining restaurants and raw bars up there. And the chefs are so fun and young and cool. And we just love working with them. And so we, distribute ourselves up there. And, we also work with some great distributors that get us throughout the southeast and, as far as Houston and as far north as Charleston so far.

Hopefully we can keep expanding that and get some of the best oysters in the world to more of the country, you know.

you just sort of [00:29:00] knock on the kitchen door of a restaurant guy, opens it up and say, Hey, I got these oysters here, you gotta try 'em, and, you know, get people that way. Or how are you finding new markets for your oyster sales?

Who told you my strategy?

Sam Walsh: that's it. pretty much, I fill up the truck, fill up some coolers with sample bags, and I just go around knocking on doors. And, I love that a lot of these chefs have never tried, uh, east Coast, Florida oyster. I mean, it's, it's a rare thing. there's four of us oyster farms on the whole east coast of, Florida.

And,

 uh, the, chefs really love them. They love the freshness. It makes a world of difference. Yeah. And when I tell a chef I could get them to you same day, it's, it's almost every single time. It's just saying, all right, well sign us up. It's, it's really cool.

Kevin: How would you describe the perfect oysters, other than saying one of SharkBites,

Sam Walsh: if we're talking a, a raw oyster on the half shell?

Yeah. Um, for me, I want a three inch oyster. and If it's got the convex top shell [00:30:00]

Kevin: mm-hmm.

Sam Walsh: that's a beauty. that's just always a good sign of an oyster. You know, you're gonna have some plump meat if the top shell is convex, it's also just gonna be that much easier to shuck.

Kevin: Right.

Sam Walsh: Um, and then, yeah, for me, the perfect oyster has to be just pristinely clean. If you're eating an animal hole and raw. You shouldn't have any mud on there. You shouldn't have any grit on there. It should be a ceremony, you know?

and then it comes down to Did the shucker do a perfect shuck? It's when you're eating a piece of, sashimi or something, you're eating a raw piece of fish. You want that to be perfectly sliced. If it looks like it came out of a blender, you're not gonna eat it. It's, it's the same thing for an oyster.

Right,

Kevin: You,

Sam Walsh: you want it to present Well, and then of course, it's, it's gonna have to have like a nice brine to it. And then, if the adductor muscle is nice and big, a nice, nice mouth feel, a good chew to it and a sweet finish is just the perfect oyster for me.

Kevin: I learned about you and SharkBite Oysters on [00:31:00] Instagram with you on this undertaking shucking and eating an oyster a day for a year and I looked forward every day to your, Instagram videos.

Sam Walsh: Well, I appreciate you saying that.

Speaker: Well, you may not recall this but I shucked an oyster with you for your Instagram post, and I'm proud to say that I was Oyster 109 with you. There we go. 109. I got Kevin here from the food walker. We're here. We've been going up and down the Florida coast, along the lagoons here, and shucking every day is something he's gotta keep doing because we love it. 366 days. Alright. Cheers. I got a party still going on my mouth. It just keeps on going. These are amazing.

Speaker 3: We've got some damage already done here.

Speaker 2: Yeah. For breakfast.

Kevin: So that was just day 109 of that project.

Sam Walsh: Well, I didn't make it too much further, to be honest.

 I think I made it to about halfway and I was [00:32:00] just so sick. I wasn't sick of the oysters. I was sick of just getting the camera out every day

 to film myself eating an oyster.

 because I would work all day and then I'd be driving the boat home and I'd be at the boat ramp and I'd be like. I forgot to eat an oyster. And I would, I'd back the boat up and I'd drive it back and I was like, you know what? I cannot keep doing this.

I, it's just, it's wearing me down. and I mean, I, I do feel bad because I, I think, I think you reached out, you're like, Hey, what the hell's going on? Where's my daily oyster? Uh, but I quiet quit. I didn't even tell people I was quitting. I just, I just stopped doing it because, just I was, I was sick of filming myself eating oyster, and I was still eating oysters just about every day, but I wasn't filming myself doing it anymore.

Kevin: Well, you know, you never actually said that it was a calendar year, so you still could do the second half now, if you chose to,

Sam Walsh: that's a great point. one of these days I'll start from scratch and I will get 365.

You know, it was also, it was a leap year. Maybe that's [00:33:00] why I quit because okay, I had to do 366 and, you know, that's just too much. I'm gonna, I'm gonna just wait for another year.

 but, you know, I probably ate way more than 365 oysters in those 180 days.

I was eating quite a few, a couple of those days.

Kevin: do you consider yourself, like the quality control guy for the farm?

Sam Walsh: Oh, for sure. I'm such a stickler. I mean, some of the guys that come shuck with me on the events or whenever we're choosing the oysters that go in the bags, like I, I'm definitely losing money when I just go back through the oysters.

We just went through and I'm just like, no, can't, can't sell that. Can't sell that. And honestly, I don't think a single person would complain about that oyster. It's just. I got this strict quality control that I don't want any oyster to not hit that mark. You know, I want every single one to be that perfect SharkBite, or our other brand is the baby shark.

So I want them to be just that perfect oyster every time.

is there, a difference? In taste or texture, between a younger oyster and a fully developed oyster. Is it [00:34:00] kind of like, you know, veal versus beef or something like that?

 I don't know, as severe as veal versus beef, but for sure there's gonna be a difference, especially in that adductor muscle, you know?

 in an older oyster. It's just had that much more time to, to work that oyster Pilates where we're, we're making them tumble every single day and every single time they're closing that shell, they're building that adductor muscle. So you might get a, a nice firm chewy or texture and a more mature oyster.

Um, and the sweet flavor comes from that adductor too. So you might even get like some sweet notes from it. A really young oyster in my experience, might not have as, well developed meat. It might not have as much glycogen stored up in it. And so what I've noticed is that, you're still gonna get amazing flavors from it.

 but in our experience, you're gonna get more of that briny flavor and less of the sweetness. With the young oyster.

Kevin: That makes sense to me. Yeah. So in all of [00:35:00] your work and developing this amazing farm, what would you say has been the biggest challenge or the biggest,obstacle that you've had to overcome?

Sam Walsh: Wow. Um. Figuring out how to run a business? No, actually that, that's been okay. Flying by the seat of my pants. The, the tough part is the stuff that's completely out of our control. it's figuring out how to honestly get through summers. Uh, one summer we had an algae bloom roll in that, shut us down for three months.

 We couldn't sell a single oyster for three months. And, um, I hadn't planned for that. And, this year we had a drought that, uh, hit us hard, but probably the toughest thing that I've had control of is seed supply.

We're lucky on the east coast. Um, we actually have more, way more options to get seed than farmers on the Gulf Coast of Florida. 'cause they can only get seed from [00:36:00] Gulf Coast Hatcheries. We can get seed from. Hatcheries from both coasts, to Gulf and East. And we could get sea from out of state on the East coast.

So that's huge. But you still need to know how much to buy and where to buy it from and when to buy it. And for every single oyster farm, it's gonna be different. So I thought, I did all my research, you know, I took classes, I talked to everyone. I went to the Oyster South Symposium, but you still gotta figure it out for yourself.

You still gotta figure out what works for your lagoon, for your gear type, uh, for, for your salinity, your phytoplankton. And, uh, I, I've ordered seed before, so a hundred thousand seed and more than that even. And, uh, I, I just farmed it and farmed it for over a year and almost nothing came of it.

Kevin: And

Sam Walsh: it was just brutal.

'cause we put so much work into that [00:37:00] seed and it just, it wasn't the right seed. and I'm not saying that I did everything right, I must have done something a little wrong, but then we got seed from other places that just was amazing. You know, we would get tons of it to market, if not 80 plus percent of it to market within a year.

 And I still have all these, these rows full of stuff that's a year and a half and I've sold maybe 5% of it. And when I put that much labor into it and that much just work, it's like, damn, I have to dump these oysters on the ground and start with new seed. And that, that's happened like three times to me now.

But I've locked it in. I found who I need to get my seed from and how much and what time of year And again, I'm blaming myself more than anyone else because I have to know what time of year works and that, that was probably the biggest thing is I, I bought seed at the wrong time of year and in our lagoon, it's just, you gotta buy it at the right time of year from the right place at [00:38:00] the right genetics.

And that's what I've learned. It just took me a couple huge failures to, uh, to figure it out.

Kevin: Are you getting out on the water every day or are you bogged down in the, business aspect of running an oyster farm?

Sam Walsh: No, I do get out on the water just about every day of the week Monday through Friday. Um, the business side of it, it isn't bogging me down.

 I've got some really great customers that make it easy for me, it's just a quick phone call or text, and I know how many oysters I need to get ready. I've got distributors that work with me. I've got a semi-truck that pulls right up in front of my house and we load it up with a pallet of oysters and off it goes.

You know, that's tough to beat and that takes a lot of the pressure off my shoulders. And, the place I want to be is out on the water. That's one of the reasons I chose this career path is so that I don't have to sit behind a desk. I think hopefully, uh, when I need to expand I can continue farming because that's what I'm good at and I think that's where I belong.

Kevin: What is your growth plan [00:39:00] and where do you want SharkBite Oysters to be in, let's say five years?

Sam Walsh: I would love to get a little more into the event side of things. I love being there for people's special moments and for also just throwing, big oyster festivals.

 it's so much fun and I get to meet such cool people. Uh, I love working with chefs. we worked with one chef up in St. Augustine for a James Beard Foundation dinner. And, just being able to rub shoulders with some of the best chefs and being able to try food that I don't think I'd ever be able to afford.

I mean, it's so much fun and it's such a cool community. So, to see where the farm goes, you know, I'm gonna see where we can get in terms of just producing, however many oysters per year. I'm pretty happy with the place we're at right now.

 I don't wanna produce 10 million oysters a year. No, that's not my plan for five years. I think I'd rather, just find a really cool, venue to start pushing my [00:40:00] oysters and, maybe in five years, that means we have our own raw bar here in New Smyrna Beach.

 that would be a real pinnacle for the farm, for the, the business.

I mean, because part of our allure is that we are a boutique oyster, right? We are a premium oyster, and you're not always gonna find a SharkBite on the menu. And I think that's the beauty of a lot of. our small farms around Florida is that we're owner operated farms and you're not gonna find us everywhere, but when you do, it's such a treat.

Kevin: If you had to identify your favorite single oyster memory, what would that be?

Sam Walsh: Oh, there's so many of 'em. the one that comes to mind is, my first date with my current fiance, Hannah.

Wait. Oh, she got mad at me once for saying current fiance.

Kevin: We got, we feel your pain, Hannah.

Sam Walsh: Oh, I'm dead. Uh, so my first date with my fiance Hannah, we, we went to a, a raw bar in, orange Beach, Alabama. And we of course got oysters [00:41:00] and I was, explaining that I was gonna start my own oyster farm and she was excited about it and I was handing her an oyster.

And my hand was shaking a lot while I was trying to hand the oyster. And the meat was kind of, the water was sloshing in it. And I remember she didn't say anything then, but she still makes fun of me to this day. About shaking my hands were how nervous I was on that date.

Try to, trying to explain my hair-brained future to my future wife. You know, it's, uh, that, that, that one, uh, that one, that one's first and foremost in my mind as a good oyster memory.

Kevin: Well, she hung in there, so that's good. You did something great. Yeah, we'll see. After, after

Sam Walsh: I just said, current fiance on a podcast.

Kevin: well, Sam, I can't tell you how interesting and fun this has been. I wish the listeners could see the difference in where you were three years ago and where you are today.

It's absolutely incredible [00:42:00] and your product is sensational. So I really appreciate you taking the time. And, you know what, if you start that, Instagram second half of the year thing, I'm gonna come down and do another one with you.

Sam Walsh: There we go. Day 1 0 9, part two.

Kevin: So Sam, thanks so much.

Sam Walsh: Thanks a lot, Kevin. That was a lot of fun.

Kevin: Well, that's it for this episode of Oyster Allergy. Thanks so much to my guest, Sam Walsh of SharkBite Oysters, images, and links to the things we talked about, including my own day 1 0 9. Oyster Slrp with Sam can be found in the show notes, so definitely check it out if you like this episode or wanna say anything about it, including daring and cajoling, Sam to finish his Oyster a Day campaign.

Please leave a comment to let me know. I read and reply to everyone and I'll pass it on to him.

And hey, please click follow on your podcast player to catch every OYSTER-ology episode. The more followers I get, the easier others can discover it too, so help me out on that.

Thanks so much for listening, and [00:43:00] be sure to join me again next time when I pry open the shell of another interesting ology topic.