Episode 41: From Sunlight to Sea: Transforming Oyster Farming with Solar Oysters

On this episode of OYSTER-ology, I sit down with Steve Patterson of Solar Oysters about the Solar Oysters Production System (SOPs), a solar-powered floating platform that automates oyster farming by harnessing the power of the sun. Our discussion covers the logic of using solar power, automation, and remote monitoring to modernize oyster aquaculture and boost production in a much smaller footprint than traditional surface-spread farms. Steve frames the system as a scalable technology platform for both restoration and half-shell market oysters, aimed at cutting labor burdens, improving growing performance, and helping the U.S. reduce its reliance on imported seafood. We talk about the company’s origins, successful prototype testing in Baltimore Harbor, grower interest from the U.S. and abroad, and the next steps: finding farm partners to complete open-water testing, validating the economics, and bringing the product to market. This episode offers a glimpse into the future of renewable-energy oyster farming – and as Steve shows us – the future is NOW!

00:00 America’s Seafood Deficit & Why Aquaculture Tech Matters

00:23 Welcome to OYSTER-ology: Can Sunlight Power Oyster Farming?

02:30 Meet Steve Patterson & the Solar Oysters Vision

03:08 Inside the Solar Oysters Production System (SOPS)

05:33 Origin Story: From Floating Solar Concept to Automating Oyster Grow-Out

08:19 How It Works in Practice: Capacity, Footprint & Using the Water Column

10:30 Depth Requirements, Dockside Nursery Use & Labor Savings

12:41 Remote Monitoring, Final Testing Plans & Building SOPS 2.0

15:24 Siting, Permitting & Storm Strategy: Where (and How) to Deploy It

19:07 Power Talk: How Much Energy Do the Panels Make? + Future Wind Ideas

22:49 Results from Baltimore Harbor: 

29:36 Challenges, Economics, Competition & What’s Next (Plus Other Shellfish)

33:42 Wrap-Up: Rethinking Oyster Farming Geometry & Call to Action

Links:

https://www.solaroysters.com/

The Fish Site article about Solar Oysters 

Credits:

Guest: Steve Pattison, Solar Oysters

Host: Kevin Cox

Digital Deckhand: Chet Jipty

If you enjoyed this episode, please FOLLOW, RATE, and SHARE the show. It helps other oyster lovers discover our growing, global oyster community.

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

Episode 41, Steve Pattison Solar Oysters - Transcript

 Edited by Chet Jipty

Steve Pattison: We import about, according to the USDA, 80% of our seafood. we have a seafood import export deficit of $20 billion a year. this is a technology because of the high production that it offers, in its own small way perhaps, but it could help, address that seafood trade deficit. 

Kevin: Welcome to Oyster, a podcast about oysters, aquaculture, and everything from spat to shuck. I'm your host and the food walker, Kevin Cox. Today we're talking about sunlight, not just as the light that sparkles on the water, but as aquaculture's power source. To put it as a question, what if the same sun that fuels life in our oceans and estuaries could also power the next generation of oyster farming?

In today's episode, I talk about just that with my guest, Steve Pattison of solar oysters. Steve and his team are developing an innovative, oyster growing system that automates oyster farming by harnessing the power of the sun. Born on Maryland's eastern shore and educated in environmental science.

Steve's career has spanned the energy sector, environmental consulting sector, and public service, including serving as assistant secretary at the Maryland Department of Environment. His work is long centered on Chesapeake Bay Restoration, which ultimately led him to develop the solar oysters production system in 2019.

He explains how this new technology will modernize oyster aquaculture and boost production in much less space than traditional surface spread farms. It's a scalable technology system for both restoration and half shell market Oysters aimed at cutting labor burdens and improving growing performance.

The solar oyster system is already drawing global attention. It's part clean energy engineering, part oyster farming, rethink, and part response to a bigger national question, which is, how do we grow more seafood domestically, more efficiently and more sustainably? So slip on your sunglasses to change the way you see oyster farming as we hear about harnessing the sun, eliminating long line floating sprawl.

Clean energy engineering, the merger of renewable energy and aquaculture labor friendly farming, increasing the production of oysters and reducing our reliance on foreign seafood. With my guest Steve Pattison.

Kevin: Steve Pattison, welcome to OYSTER-ology. I met you at the Virginia, aquaculture conference and, you told me a little bit about what you and Solar Oysters do and I have to say it kind of blew me away. You know, there's so much new technology that's coming about in the aquaculture world, and this is something that I hadn't seen before and it really caught my attention so I'm really happy to have you here and to hear about your story and Solar oysters. So, welcome. 

Steve Pattison: Well, thank you Kevin. I do appreciate the opportunity. 

Kevin: So what is solar oysters and what does it do? 

Steve Pattison: Sure, yeah. So solar oysters, LLC is a company that was formed in the middle of 2019. And our principle, goal is to bring, uh, what we feel is a very innovative technology to oyster agriculture. it's something that's applicable for those that want to grow oysters for market consumption or for restoration. And the technology that we've developed, we call it the Solar Oysters Production System, uh, or SOPs as an acronym, and we've been developing it, uh, for several years. Uh, we have built a prototype that has been launched and tested in the Baltimore Harbor. the purpose of the prototype is to test and validate the technology. Uh, what we learn from that will eventually be used to design a final product. But briefly, it's a 40 by 25 foot platform. with a dozen, 375 watts, solar panels. And the solar energy is used to automate the oyster production process. And the way that occurs is if you could imagine, and I would encourage listeners to go to our website, which is solar oysters.com, and you'll see images of the platform, but we have what we call ladders that extend vertically down through the deck of the platform into the water column. And on the ladders, are baskets that are attached, obviously to grow the oysters. And so what we're doing is using the power of the sun to rotate these ladders with the baskets through the water column. And what that does, it provides the oysters, uh, with varying, availability of food, dissolved oxygen. And so on and so forth. And there's enough energy from the solar panels to not only automate that, process of rotating through the water column, but also enough energy for navigation lighting, uh, we have a spray wash system on board because biofoul control is a big issue for growers we also have the capability for surveillance systems, ship to shore communication so that you can monitor it and, surveil if someone should come on board. so we're pretty excited about it. as I said, we had a prototype in the Baltimore Harbor, but in brief, that's, that's what we're doing.

 we're not a grower. we are, we are a provider of technology to growers. 

Kevin: How did you get started in this? Was there a problem you were trying to solve that led to the creation of this? 

Steve Pattison: Well, that's a good question. Um, we, partnered with another company who has since, exited our business 'cause they wanted to pursue other things. But, we initially had a concept, as Maryland, as many other states in the US have certain goals related to renewable energy. And knowing a big part of of Maryland involves the Chesapeake Bay, we thought, well, maybe we could come up with some way to harness solar power on a floating platform. And through that thought process and that discussion, we then came to this concept, well, why not if we're gonna have this floating platform, why don't we, hang oysters underneath it, to help stabilize it? Then we quickly came to realize that really from a business perspective, it made more sense to try to harness that solar energy, to use that to somehow automate the, uh, oyster production process.

And, That's what happened. the company was formed in 2019. uh, everything we are doing is privately funded and, uh, we, uh, built the prototype, launched it in the Baltimore Harbor in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and operated very successfully for two years.

Kevin: that's amazing. and what in your background, led you in this direction? You're not an oyster farmer but Right. How, how'd you get here? 

Steve Pattison: Well, that's a good question. anyone familiar with the Chesapeake Bay area and Maryland in particular, you know, the, uh, blue crabs and oysters are a, a big part of the culture.

 I was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Salisbury. 

 at a very young age, my parents moved to the Midwest and lived in a very rural ag centric, environment for many years. I then went to college and got degrees in environmental science and then to bring it full circle, ended up with employment back here in Baltimore in 1982, working for a very large energy company, that then led in my career to being appointed as assistant secretary at the Maryland Department of Environment for six years and then in the consulting world. And so through that period of time, while I've been in Maryland, either in the private sector or for government or consulting, I've always in various shapes or forms been involved in issues related to the Chesapeake Bay restoration and a, a key part of the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay is bringing back the native oyster population. So, uh, my interest in the bay has always been there. And then, uh, the interest in agriculture came again, later on as solar oysters was formed and one of the things I've learned is that, uh, this is an industry that really is ripe for innovation. there's, a real need and a desire, to really fully utilize the technology innovation that we have in this country. And, and solar energy is a sustainable energy source. a lot of growers are moving towards, reducing their carbon footprint, and this is one way to help them achieve that. 

Kevin: it's very interesting to see how you can harness the natural power of the sun into semi automating this thing. I'm trying to picture it from a oyster farming perspective. So you've got this chain driven ladder system, that there's electrical motors powered by the sun, and that I assume just turns the gears, that rotates the ladder and the baskets are attached to that. 

Steve Pattison: Correct. you rightly point out it's a gear and chain system. So if you could imagine on the chain, we attach a crossbar. 

Kevin: Mm-hmm. 

Steve Pattison: And upon the crossbar upon which the baskets are attached. our current prototype, has, the ability to have five, baskets attached to each crossbar. And so the current. prototype has a capacity of up to 575 baskets. and, uh,we're proceeding with a, a new updated design that are more than double the production capacity. So you're looking at the prototype that we have, on about a thousand square foot footprint, being able to produce potentially upwards of 150,000 oysters and on a traditional oyster float farm that could take an acre or more to produce that kind of volume. 

Kevin: We'll put a link to the video showing it so that listeners can click over there and have a look 'cause it's pretty amazing. Basically you've taken a farm that traditionally might be stretched out across the surface of the water with baskets hanging on a long line, and you've condensed it into a small footprint where it takes advantage of the water column up and down as opposed to across the surface. Is that a fair way of describing it?

Steve Pattison: That's a perfect way to describe it. And um, one of the things that this kind of a technology does, is it's taking advantage of deeper water, water that traditionally may not have been used for oyster agriculture. and so it opens up, areas not currently growing oysters, to enable us to grow oysters for restoration or for market consumption. this isn't something that's specific to the Chesapeake Bay. We are located here in the Bay, but we have had, inquiries from, uh, entities all across the globe. Uh, wanting to be briefed on what we're doing. 

Kevin: Is there kind of a minimum depth of water that you need in order for this to function properly?

Steve Pattison: Well, the depth, depends on where your farm is located. Obviously the deeper you go, the more baskets you can put on it, and so you can generate more oysters, which is, you know, increasing your production. the prototype we built when we tested it, was in 20 feet of water. The bottom of the ladder, was at 16 feet. Mm-hmm. 'cause you do need a little bit of, for lack of a better term, freeboard between the, bottom of the water body and, and the bottom of the ladder. but ideally you want to have as many crossbars on it as you can to maximize your production. some growers who have looked at this and said, you know, I may not wanna put that out on my farm, for ultimate grow out to market size, but I could see a use for this dockside. as basically a nursery for the young seed as they grow them. and then a grower could say, well, they've gotten up to a certain size. I'm now gonna take them out of the SOPS and put 'em out and deploy them out on my farm to grow out. 

Kevin: That's really interesting because it gives them hands-on immediate control over the young oysters as they're growing without having to go out on the water basically.

Steve Pattison: Well, exactly. And a lot of feedback I've gotten is there's a lot of, labor involved early on in the oyster, uh, growing process, A lot of handling. And if you have it all in one unit such as this in a fairly compact area, it helps to minimize that. the other thing this technology provides, is it's really kind of, labor friendly, as opposed, uh, to a traditional float farm where a worker is having to go out either in chest waders or in a skiff and all kinds of weather, to have to tend to the crop. Here you have a situation where a worker or laborer can be on the deck, moving about accessing the baskets as needed, either for, culling or for harvest, or for biofoul control.

Kevin: Yeah, from the farmer's perspective, you provide the system that allows somebody to grow a lot of oysters in one very small footprint, but the actual oyster farming part of it, how does that work? You need somebody on the deck and they need to do. What oyster farmers do, sorting, culling, cleaning, that sort of thing. how does that fit into your design 

Steve Pattison: Well, it's a good question. it's a different approach, a different type of an operation, for a grower. our experience in the harbor is it takes about one, one and a half, employees to run it. That doesn't necessarily mean they need to be there every single day, every hour. you could basically sit at your desk or sit on shore somewhere using an iPad and be able to access the control system surveillance system, see how it's operating, and adjust the rotation sequence of each individual ladder as you see fit.

Kevin: So it would only be periodic requirement for somebody to actually be on deck opening the baskets and tending to the oysters themselves. 

Steve Pattison: Exactly. we are at about 75% to two thirds of the way through testing our technology. Uh, we had good experience in the Baltimore Harbor, but what we really need to do is put it out. on open water on a successful farm, put it through its final stages of testing. and, that's part of what we want to do is to get good data, not only on the biological metrics of how the technology benefits oyster growth, but also the operation and also including the, the economics, the, uh, the man hours it takes to operate it and maintain it. All of that kind of data and information will be used to factor into the design of a final product. 

Kevin: for loading the baskets and emptying the baskets, sorting, that sort of thing, is there anything unique to your system Or is it basically what an oyster farmer would do? It's just that they're doing it on the deck of this vessel that rotates the baskets in the water. 

Steve Pattison: the current prototype, the baskets are attached through a clip system. Um, but we found that perhaps there's a way, uh, to make that even easier for a grower so that you don't necessarily have to clip or unclip the baskets to access the, the, you know, the oysters. And along those lines, we have engaged with a marine engineering and navel architect firm called Ungar Marine to design a new updated version of our prototype. Uh, we're referring to it as SOPs 2.0. And the, the main change there is, as I said before, the current prototype has five baskets per crossbar. But if we reorient the baskets so that they're not attached parallel to the crossbar, but perpendicular, uh, that means we can, we can put as many as 13 baskets on each crossbar. So that's more than doubling our capacity. Wow. And the reason I point that out in terms of handling that also means the ends of the baskets could be easily accessible to the laborer so they can just open up the end cap without having to take it off the crossbar.

Kevin: Right. 

Steve Pattison: So We're really excited about this new design. In fact, we've been, soliciting bids, to build it. And, uh, we'd making decisions on that here in the very near future. 

Kevin: how will the user make decisions on where to place it in the water? I mean, I understand the dockside thing and In fact, on that point, it sounds like it may be a replacement opportunity for a more traditional flupsy kind of arrangement where you have an upwelling system that keeps the food and water moving around. So this could replace kind of that flupsy system. I think, 

Steve Pattison: I think it may, in my view, it may be more of a supplement to it, another piece of equipment that a grower could use. Mm-hmm. The flupsy units really are at the very small, you know, very early on in the oysters growth. Uh, when they reach a certain size, perhaps transfer them to something like this.

Kevin: Right. 

Steve Pattison: But to go to your question about siting, siting is very, very important, very critical. Wherever it would be placed. Uh, you know, both from the standpoint of permitting, one of the challenges that traditional oyster float farms have faced is depending on where you are, there's some onshore, landowners that don't wanna see acres and acres of baskets, in front of their view shed on the water. And so that's a consideration, but you also have to factor in, uh making sure there's enough available current to be able to bring food across the baskets so the oysters can feed on. Yet on the flip side, you don't wanna put it in areas where it's too much wave action. so siting is, is critical. It's, very dependent on the area that you're growing. It is something that needs to be factored in. And, the feedback we've gotten from regulators in Maryland, both at the state and federal level has been positive. Uh, I think they view it as something that may be potentially easier to permit or license. As you probably know, in most states, for growers that are growing, Oysters to be sold on the market, they need to get a lease from the state agencies. 

Kevin: Right. 

Steve Pattison: And that can be a very lengthy, cumbersome process. But we have educated our regulators on what we're doing and they kind of embrace the concept. So, hopefully other policy makers and other areas will feel the same way. 

Kevin: Yeah, the regulatory side of it is very interesting and it may create something new in that you have a boat essentially that can move around to different areas without needing to be necessarily lease specific? I would think. 

Steve Pattison: Well, it's a good question. one of the early on discussions we had with regulators here in Maryland was, uh, you know why don't we just put a couple outboard motors on it, you know, and move it around. Right. And 

Kevin: I was thinking the same thing, 

Steve Pattison: You know, and get a boat registration tag and put on it. And that was generally frowned upon for, uh, the reasons that you really don't want to have a lot of fuel like that around a crop that you're growing. Um, so we really didn't, to be honest, we really didn't push back on that too much. But I do think it's, it's something that, uh, depends a lot on your jurisdiction and. how the rules and regulations apply. but the way it would be moved to be towed. and when we do deploy it for final testing, we will have to anchor it.  And siting is anchored a location that's, not only a good water quality, but also something that's accessible for a small watercraft to get out there and board it and operate it. 

Kevin: Yeah. And I would imagine that, if you're going to anchor it out there, then you, you've gotta give a lot of consideration to wave energy and storms. What do you do if there's a storm coming? 

Steve Pattison: it, it can be, detached from the anchoring system and then towed to a, to a safer anchorage. we're operating in a marine environment and weather is a factor no matter what kind of operation you have, but it can be towed to a safe anchorage. You simply lift up the chains, put 'em on the deck, and, then you'd have to reattach the baskets obviously. But, uh, it's basically pulling the chain in and then, uh, whatever shallowness that you need, and then moving it as appropriate.

Kevin: I don't know a lot about solar energy and solar panels, but the panels you're talking about 375 watts per panel. in layman's terms, what kind of power, electricity is that system producing?

Steve Pattison: the engineers have indicated that it's more than sufficient for what we, uh, what we've designed the platform to do. Um, not only just for rotating the, the ladders, but also for all the auxiliary systems that we mentioned. so that hasn't been an issue.

Kevin: So, real quick. You may be wondering, Hey, just how much power is 375 watt? In layman's terms, think of it as enough to run a laptop computer or a couple of large LED TVs at the same time. Or if you remember the 100 watt incandescent light bulbs, which are actually still widely used, you could run between three or four of them concurrently. That may not seem like a lot of power, but when you combine 12 of them together for about 4,500 watts, you're talking about a lot more energy, like enough to run an average size house, including multiple kitchen appliances at the same time, or a central air conditioning unit, or, well, you get the picture, however you think of it. That kind of power is easily enough to run the small motor, which rotates the gears. It moves the chains and ladders as well as other electrical devices on board that Steve described.

Steve Pattison: I will say that this is one of the things that we do want to test, when we complete our final testing. Is to get a better handle on, how much energy is produced. We've had a lot of interest in this platform from all kind of, uh, environments or climates, if you will, including the Pacific, Northwest and Alaska, which doesn't get as much sunlight 

Kevin: 

Steve Pattison: as say, here in the Mid-Atlantic or down in the Gulf States, obviously. But, that's the kind of metric we want to get more data on. Um. 

Kevin: Have you considered about, alternative forms to supplement the solar panels, for example, wind generators or anything like that? 

Steve Pattison: some people have commented, well, why don't you put like, on the corners of the platform, maybe some, uh, vertical micro wind turbines. And, you know, I think that's fine. I think that's kind of one of those things we put in a little parking lot and think about for the future. 

Kevin: Yeah. 

Steve Pattison: SOP 

Kevin: 3.0. 

Steve Pattison: We've got enough on our plate right now. 

Kevin: Right? Yeah. 

Steve Pattison: But it's great to know that, you know, people think outside the box and again, this would be located in an area, obviously depends a lot on where it's sited, but probably have some level of sustained winds where that could be harnessed as well.

Kevin: And from that whole NIMBY perspective of landowners what does it look like from the shoreline? I'm picturing just sort of a barge that is pretty low profile. 

Steve Pattison: Yeah, it's been described as a barge. This doesn't necessarily mean that's what the final product's gonna look like. but you look at, the top of the mast where we have navigation, lighting, you're only looking at about, 10, 12 feet above the water level. So it doesn't have, uh, a huge, what I would call visual footprint or image.

Kevin: Yeah. 

Steve Pattison: Now, uh, conceptually what we plan to do when this is, designed as a final product and offered to the market is we envision this would be designed as modules where a grower. You know, maybe I don't want, again, the prototype we have has five ladders. maybe I want 10 ladders. Maybe I only want three or four depending on my situation. So the current prototype was constructed as one solid unit. It's all welded together, but ultimately what we see as a product is something that could be modular, be put in a shipping container Or put in a flatbed truck. And then assembled at the point where it would be used. we envision having a, a team of people that would, uh, come and assist a grower, uh, in assembling it under, kind of a services contract, if you will.

Kevin: this sounds just fascinating. So, as I've seen from your website, the principle use right now is to grow large volume of oysters for restoration purposes. Does it also create opportunities for the half shell market and consumption? 

Steve Pattison: Absolutely. So let me talk a little bit about, the partnership that we have with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Um. We launched this prototype in the fall of 2021. We partnered with CBF and that partnership involved of them providing us spat on shell oysters that we could grow on our platform. The benefit to us was it gave us the opportunity to have oysters to see how the technology operates and any oysters that we grew on it, uh, would go towards CBF's Oyster Gardening program in the Baltimore Harbor. And so for two years, in 2022 and 2023, we operated in that manner and we took, uh, a variety of data. we also purchased, uh, triploid Seed Oyster six mm seed oysters, which are typically the type of oyster that are on the half shell that you go and you buy in bars or restaurants.

Kevin: Right. 

Steve Pattison: Both the spat on Shell and the triploids in particular. Uh, we grew them to market size within about 12 months. Uh, and we had about 75 to 80 percent or more survivability. So, We're able to grow at a location. If you're familiar, anybody's familiar with Baltimore Harbor, it's uh, not the ideal location to grow oysters.You're at a dock at a location that didn't get a tremendous amount of water flow, but we showed that using this technology we could grow oysters. Uh, we feel at a faster rate. And with a much higher survivability using CBF's estimates in their count, we estimate that we grew using only about a third of the platform's capacity again, spat on shell oysters, but we grew, uh, about 400,000 oysters in two years, using about a third of the platform's capacity. And all those oysters were taken out to an oyster reef at the mouth of the Baltimore Harbor, near what's called Fort Carroll. 

Kevin: Mm-hmm. 

Steve Pattison: Um, again, to help. replenishing oyster population in the bay. The other thing I, I should point out that we learned quite a bit, it's important because it's a huge, uh, cost issue for many growers, and that is bio foul control.

Kevin: Yeah. 

Steve Pattison: As, as I mentioned, uh, we have a spray wash system on board that's powered by the solar energy. And one of the things we did, We varied the rotation rates of the ladder, which you can program into it. But we had one ladder as a baseline that kept static. And what we did was we compared the biofoul growth on that static ladder for one week in the heat of the summer versus another ladder that was rotating at a cycle of every 12 minutes. In other words, it would move every 12 minutes. It would move about two feet. Okay. And we did no spray washing on either ladder and the ladder that had no spray washing yet rotated and therefore exposed the oysters to sunlight, UV light, had significant reduction in biofouling just from being exposed to the air and the sunlight. 

Kevin: Hmm. 

Steve Pattison: And, that's a huge benefit for growers, uh, algae growth, barnacle growth, or, or other organisms that, uh, can clog the baskets and impede the exposure of the oysters to water flow and food availability can be a huge issue for growers. But I think we demonstrated that just being able to get the baskets out of the water for some period of time really has a great, uh, inhibiting effect on biofoul 

Kevin: A lot of the suspended systems, are flippable so that you can flip the large baskets, so that the sun can kind of cook away the biofoul that's growing on them. In your situation, it's rotating through it. So are you able to control how much time the baskets stay out of the water exposed to the sun? Or is it just because they're constantly moving biofoul never really gets the opportunity to take hold. 

Steve Pattison: we want to have it such that any grower can, uh, program in, in a user-friendly manner, uh, in a touchscreen panel, for example the rotation sequence for any individual ladder, whatever meets their needs. So that's one of the considerations that we're factoring into this updated design. the other thing, I would point out, the tumbling effect, because as the oysters again, and the baskets go to the apex of that ladder, the basket flips and so the oysters tumble.

Kevin: Mm-hmm. 

Steve Pattison: And what we experienced, is that we grew oysters, again, I'm, I'm focusing mainly on the triploids that we grew that, uh, had a much deeper cup. 

Kevin: Right. 

Steve Pattison: And, and somewhat of a thicker shell at the, you know, the, the midsection of the oyster. Um, I should point out, as I said, we've, we've engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders through the process of, of evolving this technology. And we did have, an open house. We brought in some of the leading growers in the state of Maryland to come view it when we had it in the harbor. and the growers are very inquisitive. They said, well, let's open a few of those up. So we, you know, we kind of held our breath and and opened them up and everybody was very impressed. They were very meaty, uh, filled up the shell. we're trying to get as much biologic data as we can, we did what's called condition indexing of the oysters, which is a biometric measurement. 

Kevin: Hmm. 

Steve Pattison: Of the relative amount of muscle or meat in the, in the oyster versus the shell weight. And it was interesting, we had a much higher condition index for those oysters that were on the ladders that were rotating versus a ladder that was just kept static, which is some indication that that rotation has a beneficial effect on oyster growth.

Kevin: Well, certainly from a tumbling perspective that makes a lot of sense I would think also since the oysters are moving through different levels of the water column. They're getting different nutrients at different levels and, different kind of food than they might be getting if they're just hanging at one particular depth. Is that something you guys have looked at? 

Steve Pattison: Absolutely.in fact, I was concerned of the heat of those, summer days, late July, early August. Uh, not just the food availability, but uh, low dissolved oxygen levels would, have a, a negative effect on what we were doing. But I think we showed again for operating it for two years in that kind of a setting that by rotating and getting the oysters, giving them the opportunity to get through that low do zone or to your point, uh, getting them into a zone that has a greater food availability, uh, really helps minimize, as I said, we, we had around 75 to roughly 85% survivability, where, you know, it's not uncommon on traditional farms. You have half your crop that you lose. So that's a huge effect on the bottom line of any grower. 

Kevin: So what has been kind of the, the biggest obstacle or challenge that you've faced as you've developed this system? 

Steve Pattison: Well, our biggest challenge has not been anything related to the technology, unfortunately. Uh, it's been related to finding a, a, a viable partner that can really help us get this deployed. We've, we've partnered with someone on the Eastern shore that's had challenges and being able to, to frankly, uh, deploy it out on their lease. Uh, we're still working with that entity. But I should point out that, uh, if there are any other growers out there that have a similar vision as we do about the potential of this technology that would like to partner with us, that would be more than happy to engage in a conversation. Um, our goal is to complete our testing of this technology, get all the data that we need to bring it to market. And then, from a grower perspective, You know, they could see this as something that could really help them bolster their production. Um, or for somebody, involved in oyster restoration to be able to, replenish the native oyster population. Yep. 

Kevin: I imagine there's a, a fairly significant cost or kind of barrier to entry for a farmer. So you're focusing probably on larger scale farms, is that right?

Steve Pattison: Well, not necessarily. We do understand that not only does this technology need to be, technically feasible, it needs to be economically feasible as well. Obviously there is a capital cost involved, You know, I don't have a number that I could throw out because we haven't designed a final product yet, but I like to think of it in terms of if I'm a land-based farmer, I'm gonna make an investment into an a tractor, right?

Kevin: Mm-hmm. 

Steve Pattison: And so it's similar to a land-based farmer making that kind of an investment in this piece of equipment for a water-based farmer, 

Kevin: right? Yeah. Makes sense. Do you have any competition that's kind of trying to develop similar sort of technologies? 

Steve Pattison: Well, we're not familiar of anything that's, I would say similar to this. We've applied for a patent, we have patent pending. Um, there are instances where others are looking at ways to incorporate solar or wind energy into their operation. But we have not yet located, any similar technology we've had people contact us from, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, representatives for the Irish Seafood Development Agency. Um. And of course, growers across the US who have shown interest in this and are, are very interested in seeing what we do produce when it comes to market. So, you know, we've been in contact with, with growers or others associated with growers, worldwide, and we just think that this has brought applicability, not again just in the Chesapeake Bay, but in the US but also other, other locations, across the globe, you know, and, and the other thing I, I just point out. You know, we import about, according to the USDA, about 80% of our seafood. We have a, I think the latest data from 2023 from the USDA is we have a seafood import export deficit of $20 billion a year. Um, this is a technology because of the high production that it offers, uh, in its own small way perhaps, but it could help, address that seafood trade deficit.

Kevin: I absolutely agree. is this suitable for other forms of shellfish as opposed to oysters? 

Steve Pattison: Good question. So we've, we've had inquiries about possibly using it to grow muscles. And then the other, the other shellfish we get inquiries on is scallops. Um, a lot of possibilities, but right now we're so focused on oysters. We wanna show that we can do it successfully with oysters before we start, start tinkering in other areas. At this point, 

Kevin: Well, it is, uh, fascinating and I, I gotta come up to, uh, Baltimore Harbor and have a look at this thing firsthand. I'm dying to see it in operation. Steve, thank you so much for telling me about, this it's, it's groundbreaking stuff to me and I'm really excited, to see where you guys go with it. So thanks so much again. 

Steve Pattison: Well, Kevin, thank you again for the opportunity. Really appreciate it. 

Kevin: Well, that's it for this episode of OYSTER-ology. Thanks again to my guest, Steve Pattison of solar oysters. What I really liked about our conversation is that solar oysters isn't trying to reinvent oyster farming. It's reinventing the system around it, not wider but deeper, smarter. Brighter. Whether solar oysters becomes a common site on working farms or remains a bold prototype pushing the industry forward, it represents something vitally important in aquaculture today: a willingness to rethink the geometry of farming. In a country that imports the vast majority of its seafood. Innovation in aquaculture isn't just interesting. It's necessary, and finding a new long-term way to do it sustainably and with renewable energy is critical.

Thanks so much for listening to OYSTER-ology. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow rate and share it. It helps other oyster lovers learn about cool new technology shaping the industry. So help me out on that and please leave a comment on what you thought about this episode. I listened to everyone and would love your thoughts, and as a reminder by Steve of why all this matters.

Steve Pattison: This is an industry that really is ripe for innovation. 

Kevin: Please be sure to join me again next time as we pry open the shell of another interesting OYSTER-ology topic.