This January, Noah Mayrand of Tisbury Oyster left his boat docked. To get to his oyster farm, instead, he walked.
Mr. Mayrand has about 200 oyster cages just off the head of Tisbury Lagoon Pond, which froze enough this winter to stand on. He’s not alone: Oyster farmers up and down the east coast reckoned with freezing temperatures and extreme conditions this winter, which produced more ice than farmers have seen in decades.
But while ice demolished farms on the mainland, damaging equipment and freezing bivalves beyond rescue, the Vineyard’s aquaculture emerged relatively unscathed. And with the summer demand for oysters just around the corner, Vineyard harvesters may find newer and stronger markets for their shellfish.
“Our phone’s been ringing off the hook from off-Island distributors who want to buy our product,” said Dan Martino of Cottage City Oysters.
Oyster farms have sprung up all over the east coast in the past 10 years. The rise in aquaculture has created a saturated market, said Chilmark shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer. That has made the oysters harder to sell — something he’s noticed at his family’s farm.
“Oyster farming is the one species that everybody has chosen to go into,” said Mr. Scheffer. “We live in the aquaculture era in the northeast where primarily oysters are the focus.”
But things are different this year after what farmers are saying was one of the worst cold snaps in decades. Ice demolished farms and killed oysters across the eastern seaboard. In Long Island’s oyster farms, ice displaced and damaged equipment that caused thousands of dollars in damage, prompting searches for the now free-floating oyster cages, the New York Times reported in March.
But Vineyard oyster farms — besides being blocked in with ice — mostly survived the winter.
Most of Mr. Mayrand’s oysters were just deep enough to avoid the over six inches of top freeze on the pond. The snowpack on top insulated the waters below, preventing the ice from forming any deeper.
Quickly forming and violently thawing ice can wear and eventually sever the ropes anchoring floating cages. That only happened for two out of his 200 cages, said Mr. Mayrand. Gradual March rains and warmer temperatures made the thaw easier on equipment and allowed Mr. Mayrand to eventually clear paths of the slushy ice with his boat.
Mr. Martino was also “iced out” of his farm in January and February, something he hadn’t seen since he started the farm in 2014. But his oysters and equipment survived, and the ice may have even been good for the oysters, he said.
“[The oysters are] still alive, they’re just hanging out and they’re fine,” said Mr. Martino. While in a milder winter oysters might eat all winter long, this year’s colder temperatures caused the oysters to hibernate.
Now, the oysters are “gorging, they’re plumping up really quickly,” Mr. Martino said.
The extensive ice also killed undesirable biofouling — barnacles and blue lipped mussels that grow in similar environments as oysters, competing for food and sticking to oyster shells.
“[The ice] was a nice way to clean the cages, certainly,” said Mr. Mayrand. “They get to be a very marketable, beautiful oyster.”
Like most Vineyard oyster farmers, Mr. Martino prioritizes keeping Vineyard-grown oysters on the Vineyard, but he could see sending them to other markets later in the year.
“If we have any left over in the fall, I can see us filling in the gaps on the mainland,” he said.
The mainland’s woes could also be a boon to the Island’s wild oyster harvesters.
There is typically not much demand for wild oysters, especially with the rise in aquaculture. Shellfish constables describe wild oysters as “ugly” or “gnarly.” Shells are often unusual and less consistent, making them harder to shuck. If the ponds are not cut open to flood the brackish water with salt, wild oysters can taste different than their briney, beloved farmed cousins.
But in an oysterscape that was hit so hard by ice this season, there is more opportunity to sell what Edgartown shellfish constable Rob Morrison considers the “glut” of aquaculture.
“Typically when we have a real winter and people can’t access [their farms], it creates a gap in the market for our local oysters,” said Mr. Morrison.
Mr. Scheffer agreed. Adding to the troubles is the recent rise of multinucleate sphere unknown (MSX), a disease caused by a parasite that decreases oysters’ growth rates and increases mortality.
“[The ice] created a mess, coupled with the fact that MSX has wiped out a lot of Prince Edward [Island] population,” he said. “The wild stock is probably at a place where it could be sold for a decent price on the market.”
Early in April, the Chilmark select board voted to extend the oyster season by one week until May 9, and raise harvest limits from 800 to 1,000 oysters per person per day, up to three days a week.
The extension aims to incentivize fishermen to harvest the wild oysters left in the pond, said Mr. Scheffer. Tisbury Great Pond was covered in ice this winter, halting harvests during the coldest months.
Poor harvests of scallops could also make wild oysters an important replacement harvest for commercial fishermen. While scallops saw a banner year in 2025, a combination of disease, diminished habitat and harmful algae blooms produced a sub-par harvest this year for the already sensitive species.
“We’re really lucky that Chilmark and Edgartown both have wild oysters and bay scallops,” said Emma Green-Beach, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group. “In an ideal year, if the scalloping is bad, then [fishermen] have a chance to go oystering.”
Shelley Edmundson, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, is one of the people helping fishermen find off-Island markets for their products, including farmed and wild oysters.
The trust offers a weekly off-Island shipping service for commercial fishermen, allowing them to access markets in New Bedford without taking on the burden of shipping costs and permits. Those off-Island markets are essential income for commercial fishermen in the slow season, when local demand for shellfish slackens.
“The market’s not on the Island in the off season especially,” Ms. Edmundson told the Gazette. “Because we have such a seasonal flux, it’s important to have this income that can remain consistent for those that are harvesting on our waters.”
Wild oyster harvest typically closes at the end of April before the pond temperatures become too warm. Now is the time to get out on the water, said Mr. Scheffer.
“It’s a good time to be selling oysters if you have them,” he said.
This article appears in May 1, 2026.
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