New Haven Oysters New Haven Oysters Oysters are filter feeders, pumping up to 100 gallons per day through themselves and extracting tiny food particles.
Aquaculture is used to increase productivity.
Then they are moved several times, spending at least 14 days in very clean waters near Guilford, Milford, and Norwalk, for purification, before sale. Enormous piles of cultch can be seen in Fair Haven. Oyster predators are also controlled through aquaculture. Cleaning the beds with suction hoses keeps down populations of oyster drills and mud crabs, and racks of yarn mops are used to entangle starfish and remove them from the sea floor. Oysters were an important food supply in colonial days, and oystering became a major industry in New Haven during the 1800's.