When the teeth of the oyster tongs open, a small mound of oysters tumble onto the worn wooden surface of the Bay Quest’s culling board. They are fresh from the floor of the Coan River, on Virginia’s Northern Neck. Their shells are slick with gray silt and dotted with barnacles.
On another day, Capt. David Rowe might take these oysters to market. Today, he’s using them to tell stories of the Chesapeake and the decades he’s spent working its waters.
Rowe is among the working watermen taking part in a heritage tourism program that gives visitors an authentic look at a traditional way of life along the Chesapeake Bay.
“Back when I was oystering hard,” Rowe said, “we’d have those winter days when the sun would come up and make that long, bright light on a cold morning. Then we’d go back in the warm cabin for lunch and watch the ducks go by.”