Chesapeake Bay

The Barcat Oyster doesn’t represent a place so much as it represents a new way of thinking. When we started doing aquaculture in the Chesapeake Bay back in 2002, only a handful of commercial oyster farms existed. Today, there are hundreds are in operation all across the Bay, many of whom are one-man operations. That return of the independent waterman, who’s now operating on a sustainable tack, is what inspired the Barcat brand (a barcat is a traditional, single-user workboat on Tangier Island that could easily maneuver from oyster bar to oyster bar). We wanted to harness the scale and ingenuity of the independent grower to address the shucked market (pints, quarts, etc), which had heretofore been too costly to pursue. Thanks to this grower groundswell, sustainable aquaculture can now affordably and consistently satisfy the shucked market.

Our Barcat Shucks™ our sourced from growers throughout the Chesapeake Bay. They represent a variety of growing areas and techniques, but with one common characteristic: a commitment to conscientiously grown shellfish.