VOA慢速英语--Oyster Farmers Get Lifeline Selling ‘Uglies’

 

Have you ever seen an "ugly" oyster¹?

That is the term oyster farmers use for the sea animals when their shells get too large to sell to seafood² restaurants.

Each year, farmers grow oysters³ to just the right size so people at restaurants will enjoy eating them. If they get too big, restaurants no longer want to buy them.

So last year, when many seafood restaurants in the U.S. closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, oyster farmers lost the chance to sell their product.

Suddenly, they had a lot of "uglies" and nothing to do with them.

That was a big problem until a conservation program came to the rescue.

The program is called Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration, or SOAR⁴. It is buying more than 5 million oysters at the cost of about $2 million from farmers on the east coast of the U.S. and in Washington State.

Farmers take living oysters that are too big to sell and send them to places like the Great Bay in the northeastern state of New Hampshire.

Oysters are placed in the water in special locations called reefs⁵. Once they attach to the structures in the water they can live for a number of years. They help create a good environment for other sea life.

The hope is that the oysters will help clean the water and also have babies.

Chris Burtis is an oyster farmer in the state of Maine. He called the program "kind of a lifesaver."

Lisa Calvo runs Sweet Amalia Oyster Farm in southern New Jersey⁶.

She said the program helped her business get through the pandemic and "stay afloat."

An unknown person donated money to the program, which was organized by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Nature Conservancy. The groups worked together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric⁷ Administration⁸, which ran similar programs in other parts of the U.S.

Calvo started her farm about 20 years ago. She sells her oysters to restaurants close to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and those in the towns along the ocean in New Jersey. Oysters are ready to sell when they are about two years old. When all the restaurants started closing, she said she was "in a panic."

"Basically⁹, you know, all my eggs were in that restaurant basket."

She was able to earn about half the usual amount of money by selling her oysters to the program. That was better than nothing.

The program helped her pay her employees and get ready for the next oyster season. The money allowed her to grow oysters that she could sell this year when prices returned to normal.

She said working to keep the large oysters healthy when they could not be sold would have hurt her business. And she could not give up on the young oysters, either.

"It wasn't like I could just walk away from the farm, because there's so much intensive¹⁰ labor¹¹, particularly during the spring and summer as the oysters are growing rapidly. You can't just walk away from an oyster farm and come back when the market's good again."

Calvo is not just an oyster farmer. Before she started her farm, she studied ocean science. She said the program should restore¹² the reefs and help oysters and other sea animals. Oysters can live for five to six years, so they will produce young oysters for many more years. That is important. The Nature Conservancy says there are 85 percent fewer oyster reefs than in the past due to disease¹³, pollution and overfishing.

Similar, smaller programs were successful in the past in the ocean off the coast of New Hampshire.

Raymond Grizzle is a professor at the University of New Hampshire. He studies oysters. He said the project is a good experiment.

"We are hoping for the best. It's almost a sure thing ... that they are going to do some good," he said.

Calvo said the program helped her during a bad time, but the business lessons she learned¹⁴ during the pandemic should help her in the future.

Now, she is able to sell oysters directly to customers who come to her farm. She also sells items from other producers in her area.

"I almost wish I had planted more oysters last year," she said. "Right now, the restaurants haven't even fully¹⁵ opened yet and they're already ordering more oysters than they ever have."

Words in This Story

ugly - adj. unpleasant to look at : not pretty or attractive

oyster –n. a type of shellfish that has a rough shell with two parts and that is eaten both cooked and raw

reef- n. a long line of rocks or coral or a high area of sand near the surface of the water in the ocean

lifesaver –n. something or someone which provides help that is badly needed

afloat –adj. something or someone which provides help that is badly needed

panic –n. a state or feeling of extreme fear

eggs in one basket –saying - If you risk all you have on the success or failure of one thing (such as an investment), so that if something goes wrong you could lose everything.

particularly –adv. used to indicate someone or something that deserves¹⁶ special mention

rapidly – adv. very fast

1 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

2 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

3 oysters   

牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
• She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。

4 soar   

vi.猛增，高飞，升腾，高涨，屹立

参考例句：

• The eagle can soar without flapping their wings.老鹰无需振翼就能翱翔。
• Borrowing is set to soar to an astonishing ￡60 billion.借款很可能猛增至惊人的600亿英镑。

5 reefs   

礁体

参考例句：

• The motorboat cut across swift currents and skirted dangerous reefs. 汽艇穿过激流，绕过险滩。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Fish are abundant about the reefs. 暗礁附近鱼很多。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

7 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

8 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

9 basically   

adv.基本上，从根本上说

参考例句：

• His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
• Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。

10 intensive   

adj.加强的，密集的；精工细作的，集约的

参考例句：

• I'll make an intensive study of a subject.我将集中学一门课程。
• There we received several weeks of intensive training.在那里我们受了几星期的集中训练.

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

12 restore   

vt.把…恢复原状；归还，交还

参考例句：

• A good rest will restore you to health.好好休息一下可使你恢复健康。
• His recent success has helped to restore his faith in his own ability.他最近取得的成功使他恢复了对自己能力的信任。

13 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

14 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 deserves   

v.应受，应得，值得( deserve的第三人称单数 )；应受报答；应得报酬；应得赔偿

参考例句：

• A wilful fault has no excuse and deserves no pardon. 不能宽恕故意犯下的错误。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is the only poet in this country that deserves the name. 他是这个国家唯一的一位名副其实的诗人。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》