Oyster farming in South Carolina

Abstract

When disease concerns shut down the out-of-state supply of seed oysters for South Carolina’s newly-created oyster farming industry in 2014, the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium provided technical assistance for the establishment of a hatchery at Lady’s Island Oyster near Beaufort. This hatchery now supplies much of the oyster production seeds in the state, which reduces supply chain vulnerabilities and lowers the risk of importing diseases. The amount of of farmed oysters in the state grew from 139,178 in 2014 to over 1.2 million in 2019, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. In 2020, production dropped slightly due to restaurants closing during the COVID-19 pandemic.