There’s an environmental and economic oyster crisis along the North Carolina coast and around the world: Oyster populations are drastically low compared to their numbers a century ago. In North Carolina, the population is down 90 percent from its peak.
But two men in Carteret County think they have found a way to reverse this trend. One, Neils Lindquist, is a scientist. The other, David “Clammerhead” Cessna, is a fishermen.
Against big odds, these two have worked together for the past six years to figure out the best way to increase oyster populations in the estuaries of the North Carolina coast. Those waters were once abundant with oysters, but now their populations have been decimated because of overharvesting and habitat destruction.