Aquaculture

We Believe In Aquaculture

Our Vision


At Island Creek Oysters we envision a world where all people have uninterrupted access to nutritious, sustainably grown food. After witnessing the effects of our own shellfish farm on the local economy, diet, and environment, we wholeheartedly believe in aquaculture’s potential to play a role in making this vision a reality.

Our Mission


At Island Creek Oysters Foundation, we believe that aquaculture will play an important role in meeting the food production needs of a growing human population. The Island Creek Oysters Foundation supports projects that use sustainable aquaculture as a food source. Additionally, we educate and inform people about the value of aquaculture as a solution to the global issue of food production.

Policy and Advocacy Efforts


Island Creek is a mission based company. We exist for the well being (financial and otherwise) of our ownership, staff, and community but also to leave a legacy of helping aquaculture realize its full potential as a major part of our food system and coastal economy at home and globally. It takes a village, so to speak, and we couldn’t do the work we do without tremendous partners and organizations engaged in the good fight. If you’re interested in learning more about aquaculture these links and the tremendous people behind them are a great place to start.

Due to an increasing global population and improving quality of life in the developing world we, as humans, will have to double the amount of crops we grow by the year 2050. The Malthusian Catastrophe looms large as we grapple yet again with the question of how to sustain our species’ most basic need. The elephant in the global kitchen is protein—the first part of a diet to go missing when poverty strikes, the first indulgence when wealth is earned.

Growing animal protein also requires more natural resources than any other kind of agriculture—over 80% of US grain is fed to animals and the rearing of livestock accounts for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Everyone can’t eat cheeseburgers… but everyone isn’t going to eat insects either.

Enter fish farming.  Aquaculture has quietly established itself as an unparalleled force in the changing dynamics of our food system, set to eclipse wild fisheries as the leading provider of the world’s marine protein by the next count.  Because fish are cold blooded they offer incredible advantages in efficiency over traditional sources of terrestrial protein—it takes just 1.4lbs of feed to produce 1lb of tilapia, it takes a minimum of 6lbs of feed to create 1lb of beef.  It is largely seen as the best option we’ve got to meet rapidly growing demand for high quality protein without fundamentally compromising the environment or placing untenable pressure on wild fish populations. Shellfish farming in particular may be the only form of commercial-scale protein production that provides a net benefit to the environment where it is grown.

We are proud to support