Coastal Bounty

WESTPORT NATIVE Hunter Peterson grew up fishing and exploring our local waterways and shoreline. Although he worked on charter fishing boats, it wasn’t until he spent time on an oyster farm that he became professionally interested in mollusks. In the past, Peterson brought friends along on guided shell fishing tours, but word quickly spread, and as public interest grew, he recognized an opportunity.

In 2024, Peterson started taking members of the public on excursions, offering locals a chance to take part in a shell fishing practice that goes back centuries with Connecticut’s first Indigenous people. After finding success selling his harvest at the winter Westport Farmers’ Market, Peterson rebranded early in 2025 from Tide2TableCT to Saugatuck Oyster Company and has been booked out ever since.

A few weeks ago, Peterson invited me and Saugatuck magazine publisher Ryan Pearson out to get hands on in the waters off Canal Beach. We met Peterson early in the morning to catch the low tide, suited up in waders and shoulder-high gloves and set off into a foggy abyss.

DIVING IN

Wading into chest-deep water while fully clothed was an incredibly odd sensation. Despite the impermeable (and extremely flattering) waders, I was convinced I would be soaked as I felt the saltwater lapping at my legs. As we went further out, Peterson instructed us in the techniques for finding clams with both a rake and our feet; when I had little success, he mercifully caught a few on my behalf.

We then began to venture towards a nearby rock jetty to start in on the main event: the oyster harvesting. Naturally occurring oysters live their lives anchored onto rocks or oyster beds and are important filters in the water columns they occupy, making them good indicators of the health of local waters. Connecticut’s shores have long been famous for oystering, and despite a downturn in the mid-19th century, our local oyster population and oyster fishing itself are making a slow return.

Upon approach of the jetty, we noticed that every surface that wasn’t covered in oysters was coated in the unappetizingly named (though edible) bladderwrack or barnacle larvae; Peterson informed us that there must have just been a spawning event.

As we pried oysters off the boulders using butter knives, Peterson described the detrimental effects of the boring sponge, which attacks the calcium in oyster shells, often killing the animal inside. Despite this, we harvested several large specimens, which we measured using a gauge to make sure we didn’t harvest undersized individuals.

CATCH OF THE DAY

After about 90 minutes out in the water, our trio headed back to shore and admired our catch. Before this moment, I had never eaten an oyster, much less shucked one, so I allowed the professional to demonstrate the proper technique.

As I held the shell to my lips, I nearly backed out several times, but peer pressure and journalistic curiosity won the day as I quickly sucked down my first oyster. The flavor could be described as a firm splash of citrusy saltwater, although I suspect Peterson went heavy on the lemon juice and cocktail sauce for me.

With that came the end of our excursion. We stripped off our gear (we were, in fact, completely dry) and left behind the little strip of rocky beach, now having had a literal and figurative taste of Connecticut’s shoreline.

Looking to the future, Peterson hopes to build his own oyster farm, but for now, he’s busy with harvesting tours, oyster shucking classes, private raw bar catering and supplying top local chefs with his freshest catch. Tours cost $350 for groups of up to four people, although they are booked out through the summer. Contact hunter@saugatuckoystercompany.com for more information.

By Colleen Crowley