LISTEN | Oyster farmer says P.E.I. industry is facing ‘a massacre’:
The Current21:29Inside the PEI oyster crisis
When Kaila Richard is out on the water of her oyster farm in western P.E.I., she often thinks of her late father, who ran the farm until his sudden death in an accident in 2021.
“Being out here, I feel my father close,” said Kaila, who took over the farm in the Dock River, near Alberton, with her husband Bruce Richard.
“[When] we make mistakes, I can hear my dad saying, ‘What are yous doing?!’ … and when things go right I’m like, ‘Oh he’d be so proud,’” she told CBC Radio’s The Current.
The Richards took out hefty loans to upgrade the farm in recent years, installing expensive new equipment and spending long days tending their crop. But all that hard work is in jeopardy as two diseases rip through the Island’s oyster industry.
Farmers have pulled up millions of dead oysters, their shells piled high around P.E.I.
“The whole island is just a massacre at this point,” said Bruce.
“There’s about a dozen farmers in this little section of river back here, and we’re all in the same boat. Everybody’s seeing upwards of 90 per cent, 95 per cent dead loss.”
WATCH | $100K of dead oysters dumped in a single day:
P.E.I.
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