The Current - How two parasites are threatening PEI’s oyster industry

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

Oyster farmers on Prince Edward Island are stressed. Many have been pulling up more and more dead oysters in their catches. Two parasites are threatening the species and farmers are calling on the federal government for help. We talk to Justin Palmer, the co-owner of JP Oysters near Tyne Valley, PEI.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. You don't eat, you don't sleep. Your body is destroyed mentally. And it's a very scary time for a lot of people that I talk to it. That's Robert Bernard, oyster farmer on Prince Edward Island, describing the stress involved in doing his job these days. Like many of his colleagues, he has been. pulling up more and more dead oysters in his catch.

Two parasites are threatening P.E.I. oysters, one that's called MSX, the other known as Dermo. And now farmers are calling on the federal government to help. Justin Palmer is co-owner of J.P. Oysters in your Tine Valley on Prince Edward Island. Justin, good morning. Hi, Matt. How's it going today? Very well. How long have you been farming oysters?

I'd be around eight years now. Eight years. And so tell me what's going on right now. I mentioned these parasites. What is your life like? It's a bit stressful, a lot of uncertainty with the way things are going. A lot more work to the job now with everything kind of dying and whatnot. Tell me more about the dying.

What impact have these parasites? I said there's a couple of them. What impact have they had on your oysters? So as of now, it lost about 1.2 million oysters, which would be valued around $600,000. And I predict now, we have sunk our cages since then. And I would say about 30% more have died since then. And I don't think it's going to be very good in the spring when we go to Lyft.

That's a lot of money for anybody, $600,000. It is. What happens? I mean, just I'm on the other end of the oyster production. I eat the oysters. I'm not raising them. So what happens to the oyster when it gets infected with the parasite? Well, they can live with it and still survive,

but a lot of them are, they're dying off. It just kind of weakens them, and they can't handle the warm waters we have nowadays. It's just taking a toll on them. And do we know how the parasites arrived near the island? We know where it arrived at, but not sure how it got there. It started in Bedek,

which is one of the biggest locations for oyster fishing on BEI. And it's just kind of widespread from there. It's pretty well in every river on the island now. So when you lose 1.2 million oysters, and it cost you about $600,000, what does that mean for your business, if you don't mind me asking?

It's tough. We employ up to nine, nine people a year, nine employees, and it's raising a concern for next year, whether we have to do a lot more work ourselves or no expansion, like, of any sorts this year. So it is tough. I mean, we've heard from people saying that they're in kind of survival mode. They're trying to figure out whether they buy groceries or put gas in the truck to get to work because things are that tight.

Is that what you've heard from other people too? Yes, yeah, I did. Yeah, we're to the point where we're just barely scraping by, just, well, especially not knowing what the future is going to bring. Do you worry about the industry itself on the island surviving? I do, yes, I do a lot. Because, like, MSX, if you look it up on the Internet, it's supposed to kill a two-to-three-year-old oyster.

or it's supposed to be able to live with it up until then. But our year-old seed, like our, I would say baby oysters, they're around 30% dead. So that's just within one year. So to get them to market in three years, they don't stay in a chance. There have been, and you mentioned the oyster seeds, the baby oysters, there's been a call to bring oyster seeds in from the United States. Can you explain how does that work?

Again, for people who don't understand the process of farming an oyster, walk me through that. Um, so right now it's kind of held up by CFIA, but yeah, we're trying to get in some, uh, resistant seed from the States. They, they already went through MSX and they had similar conditions with the warm water, warm temperatures. And, uh, it seems like they're doing good now off using that seed. And these are, these are, this is the seed that would grow the oyster that, that then you'd harvest later on. Yes, yeah. Do you think this is a good idea to bring in the seed from the United States? I yes I think it's a good idea because like in a year's time I know there's concerns about bringing in another disease but we're pretty well we're pretty well at an end here I mean I guess one there's a couple of things that people have said one is that they worry that if you're bringing in this seed from the states who knows what else it could be bringing along with it that I might bring other diseases that would affect other oysters and then lead to even more destruction do you worry about that I I do worry about that, but, like, we're kind of getting ahead of it where we're at in the rivers. Some other rivers aren't as bad, but they're going to get there. And I think at the end of the day, everyone's going to be wanting the seed eventually.

The other thing that people... It's just I'd rather act on it quick. Yeah. The other thing that people wonder is, is it still a P.E.I. Oyster. Is it still a malpeck if you're using the seed from the United States? Do you know what I mean? I do, yes. It's hard to say with that.

like it's obviously it's grown here but yeah you're right it's it's not the same but these are measures that you think need to be considered because of how desperate the situation is yes well even even if we could like use it as a bridge because here on pei they're not they're not expecting to have a resistance seed for over five years and like that'll that put most farmers at a business Wow. At least like 80% of firms out of business. What kind of work is going on? There's work, I mean, scientific work, to try to figure out a parasite resistance seed, is that right?

Yes, yeah. I don't know much on that. It's mostly done in the labs where they're figuring that stuff out. Even like over and across the, like New Brunswick area, they still don't have it quite figured out and they've been with it longer than us. what else do you want governments to do to help i mean the way that you describe it that you're worried that the industry itself is under threat and the farmers wouldn't survive the five years to get to that parasite resistant seed what else could governments do to help you out right now

like interest relief on payments and stuff would definitely go a long way and compensation on wages because like with all these dead oysters you got to pick them out like the the uh the uh space is worth so much money the cages that you can't be growing or having them full of shells so what do you want us outside of pei to think about i mean i love oysters um and i love pei oysters people enjoy them across this country what do you want them to be thinking about what do you want us to be thinking about uh spread the words that that's that we're going through an issue here and keep eating them

keep the America going. But know that you're in tough times. Yes. Justin, it's good to talk to you about this. I think it's an important story, and folks on the island I know are consumed by it, but people perhaps elsewhere don't know enough about this. Thanks for speaking with us, and good luck. Yeah, thank you, Matt. It's good to talk to you. Justin Palmer is co-owner of J.P. Oysters near Time Valley on Prince Edward Island. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. and all. time zones or you can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening.

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