Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Charles Mckenith harvests oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com Material Handler Machine
Irma-Jean Mckenith takes a break from raking around looking for oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Steadying one another, a couple wades through the tide and pluff mud as the tide lowers near Murrells Inlet. The public oyster beds fill with people and their buckets. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
As the marsh waters receded and the pluff mud's earthy-yet-pungent smell of bacteria feasting on detritus permeated the breezy air on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Keith Spencer raked through an exposed oyster bed in Murrells Inlet in hopes of finding bigger shellfish that others had missed.
“I’ll go along and look for something at least this big,” he said, holding up an oyster about 3 inches long as he used his hammer to knock off clumps of smaller shells before tossing his harvest in a 5-gallon bucket.
The practice of keeping just the desirable oysters and tossing back the other shells is known as culling in place, and it’s encouraged by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources because it helps give smaller shellfish the hard substrate they need to grow, which maintains the area’s popular oyster beds.
Oysters spawn in the summer, releasing sperm and eggs to create free-swimming larvae. After a couple of week swimming around, the larvae will land on a hard substrate – preferably an oyster shell – and spend the next two or three years growing into a 3-inch, market-size oyster.
October is the beginning of South Carolina’s shellfish season, when anyone with a $10 saltwater fishing permit and some basic gear - gloves, a hammer and buckets, to name the basics - can harvest bucketsful of oysters.
The state limit is two U.S. bushels of oysters per person and a half-bushel of clams, although no one can take their shellfish limit more than two days a week. For reference, a bushel of oysters is roughly the equivalent of two 5-gallon buckets. There’s no size limit for oysters, but DNR encourages folks to take only oysters that are at least 3 inches long.
Charles Mckenith harvests oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Spencer, a Maryland native who moved to Pennsylvania and then to Carolina Forest about two years ago, also had clams in his bucket. Oyster beds are a good place to find them, he said, but they weren’t his main target.
“I’m not really going for clams,” he explained. “The reason I’m raking like I’m doing now is I’m trying to dig up some bigger oysters that people raked over. Sometimes those bigger oysters are below this.”
Just getting from the shore to an oyster bed requires a bit of forethought. Walking through the water and avoiding the exposed pluff mud is probably the easiest way to avoid getting stuck, because the water prevents the mud from sucking in whatever it catches. But it’s also the best way to get wet, and not everyone wants to spend hours in heavy waders or in soaking clothes.
At the same time, oyster beds are only exposed as the tide goes out, so, without a boat, navigating the viscous stew of sand is almost unavoidable.
Walking over the exposed pluff mud may look easy until the first step, and Spencer is well-versed in the art of recovering muddy boots.
“I’ll lose it then have to dig down and get it,” he said. “It’s like a big suction cup. You’re carrying two buckets, and those buckets ain’t light. You’re carrying them out and your feet get stuck and you go faceplant.”
Irma-Jean Mckenith takes a break from raking around looking for oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Across the creek, Irma-Jean Mckenith and her son, Charles Mckenith, were harvesting shellfish from an oyster bed closer to shore.
Irma-Jean said she’s been gathering oysters for close to 40 years, going out for them “every now and then,” during the season, which runs from October 1 through May 15.
At 70 years of age, the Cold Springs native still works at the Conway Manor nursing home, and gathering oysters and clams is her way to unwind.
“I’ll tell you, it’s relaxing for me,” she said. “You work at a nursing home, five, and four days a week, and when you get off, all you can do is go to bed. And when you get a couple of days off, you go out here and listen to the water hitting against the waves. It’s relaxing.”
Steadying one another, a couple wades through the tide and pluff mud as the tide lowers near Murrells Inlet. The public oyster beds fill with people and their buckets. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
For folks in Horry County, Murrells Inlet is the closest spot to take oysters. It’s also the only place that shellfish can be legally harvested in the county.
South Carolina’s oysters are intertidal, meaning they’re underwater half the time, and exposed half the time, depending on the pull of the moon. In Horry County, there are only two areas with such an environment: Cherry Grove and Murrells Inlet.
But in Cherry Grove, as well as all other marsh-like waters north of the inlet, harvesting oysters recreationally isn't allowed. the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control says the fecal coliform bacteria levels are too high, indicating the water isn’t clean enough to support oysters fit for human consumption.
That means there’s a lot of pressure on Murrells Inlet’s oyster beds.
“It’s picked over so much, it’s not like it used to be,” said Garner Owens, 56, who lives in Socastee and who grew up coming to the inlet to hunt and fish with his grandfather.
But Spencer said he’s never had a problem harvesting oysters throughout the entire season, pointing out oyster beds hundreds of yards across the marsh that are rarely touched.
“I came out the first day and about twice a week,” Spencer said. “I’ve never had an issue until all the way into May.”
One thing both Spencer and Owens can agree on? Murrells Inlet has delicious oysters.
Maryland has them, Spencer said, “but they were them bay oysters, nothing like this. These are nice and salty because it’s all ocean.”
“That’s the best way,” Owens said. “I’ve eat ‘em in Boston and Florida and everywhere else, and none of them are like Murrells Inlet. I’ve heard of people complaining of them being small and all that, but I don’t care where they get ‘em from, they don’t taste like these. They’ve just got more of a salty water taste. The other ones are like brackish water.”
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
To make sure Murrells Inlet continues to have quality mollusks, DNR deposits between 5,000 and 10,000 bushels of oyster shells into the area each year as part of a state-wide effort to maintain oyster beds across the coastline, and supported through DNR’s shell recycling efforts.
“Murrells Inlet grows great oysters,” said Ben Dyar, who heads up DNR’s shellfish management program. “The one concerning thing about Murrells Inlet is it’s not a very large area and it is used by quite a large population in Horry County because there’s not many places to go, so you do see, recreationally, high pressure on the oyster resources.”
But how high is the pressure? It’s hard to say, because the state only requires a saltwater fishing permit to harvest shellfish, and there's no way to know how many of those permit-holders are going after oysters and how often.
“That is one of the larger issues that we are facing when trying to actively and proactively manage this fishery,” Dyar said. “So one thing we would like, and are seeking, is to try and have a better understanding of what that recreational harvest pressure is. We’ve done surveys in the past to get at that number, but those haven’t been done every year because those are quite expensive to do.”
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Another option is to add a shellfish endorsement to the saltwater license, so the department would at least know how many people would like to go after clams and oysters.
“This option of a shellfish endorsement is currently going through the internal SCDNR vetting process by presenting to oversight committees and the DNR Board,” Dyar said in an email. “This would also potentially give us an avenue to ask questions when the public is applying for the endorsement, such as how many bushels were harvested in the past year?”
There’s no set timeline for the vetting process, said DNR spokesperson Erin Weeks in an email, but if the agency wanted to add a shellfish endorsement, it would require legislative action.
So far, Murrells Inlet has met the needs of the oyster-hungry public, and everyone has their favorite way to eat them.
Popular methods include, but are not limited to, steamed, roasted, baked, fried, grilled, sautéed, raw on ice or cracked open straight from the marsh and sucked down with hot sauce.
Which isn’t to say that clams are any less of a coastal treat.
Added Spencer, “I like ‘em both.”
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Charles Mckenith harvests oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
A man harvests oysters on a public bed near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Irma-Jean Mckenith takes a break from raking around looking for oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Steadying one another, a couple wades through the tide and pluff mud as the tide lowers near Murrells Inlet. The public oyster beds fill with people and their buckets. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
After wading through the tide and pluff mud as the tide lowered near Murrells Inlet, a woman settles on a public oyster bed. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Thomas White (left), 26, of Socastee and Garner Owens, 57, of Socastee dig through the mud feeling around for clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Charles Mckenith and and his mother Irma-Jean Mckenith harvest oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Thomas White, 26, of Socastee collects clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
A boy walks barefoot through the pluff mud around razor sharp oyster shells near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Public oyster beds are open near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
A man walks barefoot through the pluff mud around razor sharp oyster shells near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
Irma-Jean Mckenith rakes around looking for oysters and clams near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
After wading through the tide and pluff mud as the tide lowered near Murrells Inlet, a group settles on a sliver of a public oyster bed. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com
sand pumping machine Keith Spencer is harvesting oysters near Murrells Inlet. Photo by Janet Morgan/janet.morgan@myhorrynews.com