Seeking to save the oyster industry, a PEI lab sees big potential in tiny seeds

IN DEPTH Pearls of wisdom To save the East Coast oyster industry from deadly parasites, hatcheries of PEI are busy making a hardier breed LINDSAY JONES AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY VANESSA TIGNANELLI BIDEFORD, PEI THE GLOBE AND MAIL PUBLISHED 54 MINUTES AGO COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. Inside an oyster hatchery on the western shore of PEI, an array of plastic vessels pumps algae-rich water to millions of tiny black dots – some as small as poppy seeds. They’re teeny, tiny baby oysters, specifically bred from the few that have survived multinucleate sphere unknown, or MSX, a deadly oyster disease caused by microscopic parasites. These babies’ genetics are considered the best way forward for an industry on the brink of destruction as a result of the disease, which has ravaged wild and cultured oyster farms in Eastern Canada. It’s one of several responses to help PEI’s $27-million industry recover from the disease, which was first detected on the island two years ago and can kill 95 per cent of infected oysters. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it poses zero threat to human health or food safety. “It is a terrible epizootic,” said Guy Perry, a molecular geneticist and manager of the Bideford Shellfish Hatchery on Lennox Island First Nation. “I have not seen anything worse than this ever, but at the same time as it does all this damage, we have a lot of hope because of the tools we have.” Open this photo in gallery: Guy Perry manages the Bideford Shellfish Hatchery, whose lab grows tanks of baby oysters, known as seed, to supply the aquaculture industry across Eastern Canada. Open this photo in gallery: Open this photo in gallery: A larval oyster, enclosed in a tiny shell, is just a few millimetres wide. Much of the footprint of the hatchery is dedicated to growing algae in heavy-duty plastic bags. Algae is the main source of food to grow the millions of seeds the hatchery produces annually. At the Bideford marine research facility on the edge of an estuary on Malpeque Bay, giant bags of algae in seawater ranging in colour from green pond scum to honey-brown lager bubble away like witches’ brew – the primary source of food for baby oysters. The hatchery is working to create homegrown disease-resistant oyster seed to sell to the aquaculture industry, which relies on infected coastal waters as a growth environment for its oyster crop. To do so,…