Oyster farmer Jason Lancon wades the perimeter of his families oyster farm off the coast of Biloxi, Mississippi. In the Gulf of Mexico, oysters can grow to a harvestable size as quickly as two years, whereas in the Northeast it can take up to several years. Climate change is warming the tide and devastating coastal brackish waters which are the critical environment to growing oysters.
Oyster shuckers hull oysters at the Crystal Seas oyster shucking facility in Pass Christian, Mississippi. This is the last oyster shucking facility on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
An oyster shucker pulls the meat out of an oyster which will soon be frozen and prepared for distribution as far north as St. Louis, Missouri.
Clifford Lancon (left) and his son Jason Lancon (right) stand in their restaurant, CJ's local Cuisine. The Lancons were the first to begin oyster farming in Mississippi in the early 20th century. Because of climate change disrupting the ocean conditions, their oyster farm has struggled to keep up with the demand for oysters.
University of Southern Mississippi Oyster Biologist Megan Gima (left) waits for oysters to release their sperm or eggs. Jason Lancon (back) learns about different methods of encouraging oysters to reproduce from researchers at the Aquatic Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi. Lancon hopes of carrying some practices back to his family oyster farm.
An oyster cage leans against a wall of containers that are used to grow oysters under lab control.
Oysters enter the trochophore stage. Oysters are free swimming organisms until they reach the larvae stage where they attach themselves to an object so that they can maximize efficiency with nutrient intake and growth.
Bradley DeLeon marks an oyster as male after it began releasing sperm. Oysters are hermaphrodites that can release both sperm and eggs.
Jason Lancon (right) dons his wet suit before jumping into the water to work on the oyster farm.
Jason Lancon secures oyster traps that had come loose during Hurricane Delta. It will take weeks for the Lancon family to fix all of the damage done to their farm from the series of hurricanes during the season.
Michael Valentino (center) takes a photo of his grandchildren Vinny and Ada Madeira atop a massive pile of oyster shells. The shells are piled in the sun to dry out until they become chalky. They are then broken into pieces and dropped into the gulf to become cultch, the mixture of grit, broken shells and stones an oyster bed is made of.
The S.S. Mark and Dawn sets sail for a night of shrimping in the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Shrimp in the gulf coast have grown larger, faster than ever before due to the warmer water and surplus nutrients as a result of the record number of gulf storms.