Interview by Mercedes Arnold

All photos provided courtesy of the Lady Shuckers.

Maine Vibes Magazine: Can you introduce yourselves, state your pronouns and introduce your business?

Libby Davis: My name is Libby Davis, my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am one of the co-founders/owners/operators of Lady Shuckers Mobile Raw Bar and Company.

Jacqueline Clarke: I'm Jacqueline Clark, my pronouns are she/her/hers and I am the other co-owner/co-operator of Lady Shuckers. 

MVM: How did you guys meet?

LD: We met probably three years ago at a raw bar, because we're oyster gals. At that time I was managing a raw bar in town called Maine Oyster Company. Jacqueline would come in a lot for oysters and we had conversations at the raw bar and formed this friendship.

JC: Maine Oyster Company, when they started hosted grower nights on Thursdays. I had just moved to Maine and I knew absolutely nobody and wanted to find a couple of places that I could frequent to meet people to be a reoccurring face. I heard about these oyster nights, went in, and the vibe was good. I thought this is the place where one person could come and drink a bunch of Prosecco, have a bunch of oysters, and maybe fly under the radar. So that's what I started doing and that's how I met Libby. They had this bell that you ring when people they like come in.

LD & JC: The “Boom Shakalaka Bell” for members.

LD: The membership included special benefits to make that restaurant become your own private clubhouse. When members would come in, we'd ring the bell and embarrass them. 

JC: I remember the second or third time I came in, Libby was ringing this bell all excited. I felt seen for the first time in this city, someone knows who I am, I was so happy. It was a moment for me. 

MVM: Where did you move from?

JC: From Detroit, Michigan.

“What better way to pay homage to a really amazing industry than support the women and the friendships that we had. I pitched the concept to Jacqueline and she was all about it.” - Libby Davis

MVM: Michigan, ok! How did you start Lady Shuckers, what brought you to creating the business? 

LD: Being in the restaurant, I worked there for two and a half years and saw all the different styles of how you run a business and aquaculture. The owner is an oyster farmer and we were doing events, we had the restaurant, we were shipping oysters. Growers would come in all the time, and I got to meet a lot of the farmers and meet these badass women oyster farmers and formulated friendships with them. At the time, I was the only woman on staff at the restaurant. I thought it was really cool, they'd come in with their muddy, extra-tough boots on with the big bags of fresh oysters they had just harvested. 

I was able to develop friendships with Jacqueline and all these women oyster farmers, women in marine biology, outreach and policy experts, and other people in the foodservice industry focused on seafood. It was a great meeting space to be able to build these friendships. After the pandemic, we saw a gap and a need for there to be a better outlet to connect the supply to the demand in a more creative way. 

The restaurants were shut down. At Maine Oyster, we focused on shipping oysters to people's doors. I had always wanted to have a food truck, I'm really interested in sustainable, intentional living. I thought an oyster food truck would be really good. What better way to pay homage to a really amazing industry than support the women and the friendships that we had. I pitched the concept to Jacqueline and she was all about it. She had already started a really amazing oyster aquaculture blog, she's a really talented photographer and writer. We were able to align our skill sets and fill a gap in the industry with our underlying social mission of supporting, not just women, but other groups that have been marginalized in our society, too.

MVM: That's amazing. Is the Briny Babe your blog, Jacqueline? 

JC: It is!

MVM: Did you start it when you moved to Maine? 

JC: I worked in seafood before moving to Maine and I would write tasting notes and take photos for every oyster that I had for years, it was really fun for me. I decided, instead of posting them on my own personal page, to do a separate blog and see what happens, and it’s been happening!

MVM: That's very cool! How do you source your oysters? Can you talk about the importance of aquaculture in Maine, how it affects our community and the environment, and about the oyster farmers that you source from?

JC: As Libby mentioned, we source oysters from female and minority-owned oyster farms throughout the state of Maine. I think 16 of those farms are female-owned farms out of close to 160, it's just around 15% that are women-owned. Our goal is to, at some point, be able to purchase from all of them, however, geographic considerations come into play. We have great relationships with all these women, our goal is to rotate from whom we're buying the oysters. We buy them from women that have their certified dealer's license or we use a dealer to go through them. We buy for the week and feature them on our menu, it's great exposure for the farmers. A lot of these women-owned farms are small-scale; they are still building and scaling their business and looking for different distribution networks. 

To go out and work on an oyster farm all day and then to be worried about marketing, sales, etc., it's a lot, and it's certainly a lot for one person. We want to amplify their voices, we give them that platform, we buy their oysters, so that’s sales, we showcase who they are, that's visibility, and by showcasing these ladies, that’s helped attract other restaurants and other distributors to look directly at those farms and say, ‘oh, this is a really cool person, I would like to buy oysters from her as well, or we would like to feature her on the menu.’ That has been a really great way for these women to, not only have us purchase oysters, but to create additional avenues of sales for them as well. 

MVM: That is awesome.

“It's important to create a community of women working together because a lot of these women too are smaller businesses and just getting started. When you're starting a business, you're still figuring out how to do X, Y, and Z…I think by connecting these women, they feel more comfortable reaching out to one another with questions...We want to create resources as well, so our hope is to amplify their chances of success in their business.”

- Jacqueline Clarke

LD: Like Jacqueline said, running an oyster farm is a full-time job, as us as an event caterer, we’ve tapped into these industry networks and we're able to market not only ourselves and our mission, but all the farms that we work with, and ultimately strengthens all of us. And as she said too, with our underlying mission of supporting women LGBTQIA, BIPOC, and disability-owned businesses, other people from outside of Maine in the global sustainable seafood conversation have been tapping in and wanting to be a part of the conversation. Our goal of putting Maine oyster farmers on the map has been a huge inspiration for us. Maine already has such a great story to tell when it comes to seafood with lobster. We definitely believe that Maine oysters are world-class, and they should be recognized for it. 

JC: They are the best in the world. I will go on record and say that.

LD: A lot of these farmers are our friends, it’s a professional relationship but we also have really strong personal relationships with them too. 

JC: It's important to create a community of women working together because a lot of these women too are smaller businesses and just getting started. When you're starting a business, you're still figuring out how to do X, Y, and Z, whether it's sales, creating an LLC, tying knots in the water, or on the boat. I think by connecting these women, they feel more comfortable reaching out to one another about questions that may seem like beginner-level questions, but they aren’t, everyone goes through it. We want to create resources as well, so our hope is to amplify their chances of success in their business.

MVM: It definitely feels isolating when you first start a business, then you start to talk to other people who are doing what you’re doing, you get a platform, or you are introduced to a community and like-minded individuals, and you realize you're all going through the same struggles.

JC: It’s easy to put on a face that makes it look like you know what's going on. The women we’ve encountered really appreciate knowing that it’s not just them going through it, because it is isolating. 

LD: It’s like solidarity. There's an expectation in society that you're supposed to know how to do this stuff, you're supposed to know how to bookkeep, you're supposed to know how to do social media, we're supposed to know how to go through the permitting and legal process. It's not knowledge that, if you didn't study business or finance in college,  you don't have those skills. I studied biology and Jacqueline studied law, we've had to learn a lot of this stuff on our own. There are some resources to help if you ask and reach out to the State Department, but it's a process.

MVM: Those resources can be hard to find. I think it's great that you are making them more accessible and building a network of resources. 

JC:  Those resources cost money, sometimes it’s not feasible to spend money on a legal consultation. 

“We are preaching a narrative of inclusion, and definitely recognize the efforts of people that have got us here today. By saying that we are only going to source from women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and disability-owned businesses, we are actively making a stance about intersectionality in our coastal communities.” - Libby Davis

LD: There's no shortage of mentors in this industry. We’ve found that the support that we've gotten for our mission has been well received, which, for a little bit of time, was a difficult narrative to tread. My mentors were primarily cis-white males and I learned a lot about aquaculture and oyster farming and running a small business from them. Then to make a stance saying, we're only going to buy from these groups that have been traditionally marginalized in society, it was uncomfortable for a little bit to not be able to patronize those people that had taught so much, but we've found that by staying true to the values they're super supportive of it. There hasn't really been any adversity at all,  and ultimately, what's more, important for us is amplifying and lifting the voices of those groups and less about ‘down with men’. We are preaching a narrative of inclusion, and definitely recognize the efforts of people that have got us here today. By saying that we are only going to source from women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and disability-owned businesses, we are actively making a stance about intersectionality in our coastal communities.

MVM: Definitely. This is part of the mission of the magazine as well, amplifying those marginalized voices and sharing that these businesses are open to hiring, and you should hire these people, they're amazing! Getting to know that there's a whole group of women in the aquaculture industry across the state is so awesome. 

As you know, in Maine's economy, we do a really good business in the summer as far as seafood sales go. Does this affect our environment and how can Mainers protect our shorelines so that you can continue to be successful in the aquaculture industry?

LD: The thing about sustainable shellfish aquaculture is that oysters are good for the environment, they are filter feeders, they eat the little phytoplankton and algae in the water column, they take it in through their gills, metabolize it, and then pump it back out into the ocean as clean water. The more people we have doing oyster farming, the better marine health we can cultivate. 

Sometimes there's this aversion to folks that may not be from Maine who’ve bought a waterfront property not wanting to be a part of a fishing community because they don't want to see it, smell it, or hear it. It takes the role of the farmers to be able to educate the public and say that it's developing our workforce and a local industry that's sustainable and good for the environment. Getting the word out there that oyster farming is something that's good, can be really helpful.

JC: Agriculture is huge in other states, the oyster industry, and other coastal communities in the Mid-Atlantic or the West Coast, those oyster farms are massive. The amount of oysters Maine is landing is 1/16 of Virginia, so we're still very small. It’s my hope that the farmers here continue to scale their farms because people will likely, as Libby mentioned, complain and landowners don't want to see oyster farms. But the industry is so vibrant, the job opportunities are fantastic. Younger people, especially kids in high school and in college can make aquaculture a career. It can be a career whether you're owning a farm, working on one, or working in a hatchery. What Maine has to do is harness those people that are interested in making it their career and work to develop the industry in a way that it goes up, not out, and then you'll have a more committed and educated workforce and be able to build that industry to make it a forefront of the economy of Maine.

LD: Aquaculture has been going on in Maine for a little bit but it seems to have really come online recently. It has been a trending industry that I've been in in the last four years, and in Maine specifically, I've had a front-row seat to see it really start to explode. 

As Jacqueline said there is so much opportunity to be an entrepreneur in aquaculture, whether you want to start a farm, do events, build shipping, work in a hatchery, or research ocean acidification, anything in marine science, researching shells, upcycling goods. There is so much opportunity to own your own business and that's another thing that we're trying to showcase our mission because it's empowering for women to see other women be out there doing it. There's a need for new talent and ecological justice and social equity, and oysters do both, they bring people together and clean our oceans.

MVM: It sounds like there are so many opportunities to get involved in aquaculture, which is amazing! What year did you start Lady Shuckers? 

LD: We pitched the concept virtually to a grant institution and received startup funding for it in 2020.

JC: The LLC was formed on February 21, 2021. 

LD: We formed the business later on and we did our first event at the end of June last summer.

MVM: That's wild. How many events do you have on the books right now for this summer? 

LD & JC: A lot.

LD: There are two components to the business, there are the pop-ups within the industry where we're at breweries or marketplaces where we do direct-to-consumer sales and hope people show up and buy oysters, and then there's the private events and bookings. People will inquire and we'll give them the catering quote for a wedding or a backyard party, or a panel discussion. There are so many really great internal aquaculture panel discussions that we've been able to tap into through the New England Ocean Cluster as part of inclusion in the blue economy cohort.  There are all these different avenues that we've been able to gain exposure and visibility, not just for ourselves, but for the farmers too. 

The beer and oyster cruises that we did last summer with Feel Good Portland and The Frances Project that leaves out of the Bangs Island mussel pier, were great because we got to partner with Maine craft breweries, and oyster and beer go together so well. We were able to leverage the existing exposure and the good graces of the breweries to co-market and get our name out there really quickly. That's been of huge value that we're super grateful for, and we're excited to do more cruises again this summer.

MVM: That’s amazing! I saw that you are going mobile this summer with your raw bar which is so exciting, congratulations!

LD & JC: Thank you! 

LD: We are going to be on the Eastern Prom and elsewhere this summer. We are going back to industry spots that created a home for us through the offseason for months when we couldn't cruise anymore through the fall and into the winter. Those spots are Après, Austin Street Brewery, and Belleflower Brewing.

MVM: That's so exciting. I love that you guys are doing so much!

JC: We are lucky that we have a lot of women that have expressed interest in doing events with us, it'd be great to get a team together and be able to assign different venues to different people. That would allow us to expand, be in more places, do more partnerships, and really help us to continue to grow and create job opportunities for other people, be able to get more oysters per week from different farmers, so it would all rise together.

MVM: Very cool, we’ll definitely be on the lookout for that. When you imagine the future of Lady Shuckers, what does it look like? 

LD: The tagline mission is ‘Amplifying voices in aquaculture’ but the real mission is to become a leader in shaping an equitable and sustainable seafood future. We’ve been a part of global seafood conversations. We were both at the Boston Seafood Expo and I love shucking so much I participate in competitions now.

We always had this vision of franchising out, uniting different pockets of women in different areas that vibe with our mission. Ultimately, we would love to have multiple units, one in Boston, one in New York City, one in Florida, and one in Stowe, Vermont, and they were individually owned by these groups under the same umbrella, we'd be able to grow the distribution a lot more. 

We've been able to find that it starts in Maine because it has such a great story. There's such a great visual storytelling component of oysters, everything from the farm, to the events. By being able to expand that beyond Maine, we found that we would like to grow it into a global conversation. We think the mission is strong enough and authentic enough that it can be part of the conversation. 

For my personal story, I identify as a queer woman, and we're trying to use the network of women to be a vector to these other groups. I spent three years serving in the Peace Corps in Madagascar, people of color are very important to me. I want to address the things that you wouldn't go through normally, being born in America, and having that empathy for people of different cultures.

It’s important for us to be able to pay homage to those stories. We're going to be working at an event coming up with Best Buddies International and speaking and hosting a learning lab to teach people with Down Syndrome how to shuck oysters there because they might normally not have access to that type of experience. We’re trying to make our work as inclusive as possible. These are not things we're not doing to sell oysters or to make money, but because they're truly reflective of both of our values as individuals.

MVM: That’s amazing, I'm so happy for you guys. Um, do you want to elaborate on the future of aquaculture in Maine?

JC: The Maine aquaculture industry is still very new, as Libby mentioned. There have been oyster farms for a bit, but we've seen this boom in the past five to seven years which has been great on a small farm scale, but it's something that is going to be shifting and changing over the next couple of years because a lot of people are going to reach the point where they have to decide whether they want to scale or not, and have to make the decision as to what capacity they want to be able to scale. There are other states out west and in the mid-Atlantic region that I’ve seen how they scaled and develop their industry. There are definitely ways that we can look forward and look to those farms as examples of how aquaculture would change. 

In Maine, there have already been a lot of co-ops that have been developing, which I think is great in terms of being able to share gear and resources and employees. How they are going to go about branding their own oysters and distribution is something that they have to decide internally, whether they want to maintain their own individual identity or go towards this collective group. I think that's probably the first big shift that farms here will see. The more aquaculture expands in Maine, the more job opportunities there are for people. That is something that I'm very interested to see the progress of, knowing how it's played out in other states, is to see how Maineharnesses the current aquaculture scene and how it's going. It’s only going to grow.

In the south, like the Carolinas, Florida, and Louisiana, they eat oysters like wild. I did an interview with a bunch of them for a grant project and shucked oysters fly off the shelves, and people eat them like we eat chicken. The half-shell market is really great, but we want to create different ways that people can enjoy oysters and create opportunities for the Maine oyster to go outside of the state on a half-shell market as well. 

We need to work on diversifying the product itself and where it's going and how people are eating it. We have the ability to do it, Maine has such a good oyster, the flavor profile is amazing, it's not a low salinity oyster, it has complexity, and really good quality that we can set forth into the world.

MVM: What are the best resources if a woman-owned oyster farm was reading this, and they are wondering where to go to get more information on how to create a sustainable, successful business? 

LD & JC: Reach out to us! 

JC: In terms of growing their business, a lot of people have to do internal reflection to determine what their goals are with their farm. If it's a hobby farm and you have another source of income or you have a threshold you want to get to and you're there and you're fine with it, that's fantastic. If it's something where you want to work and have a big farm, you have to think about, is that something that you could do personally? Do you need to merge with somebody else? Do you need to take on partners, do you need a co-op? 

The big thing really is money, and the gear. It’s knowing what financial resources are available to you. The FDA has a lot of great grant opportunities, there are different tax credits that are out there that can benefit people looking to scale. There are definitely business resources through private lenders as well, like Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI). I've been telling people to look at connecting with farmers in other states to look at how they've grown their business. 

LD: Another great place that I would recommend to anyone who's interested in starting a business in aquaculture, take the course Aquaculture In Shared Waters, which is operated by CEI, they have an offset of Brunswick, they offer this free six-week course that you take and they offer different workshops about all types of aquaculture; oysters, mussels, scallops, and kelp farming. 

I like to say that oysters are the gateway to all the other amazing aquaculture products that we have out there. In terms of a national conversation about aquaculture, kelp is going to be huge when it comes to climate change and offsetting carbon. 

We don't give enough credit to the regulatory bodies that we have here in Maine. the process is long, yes, to get your farm started, you have to get your limited purpose aquaculture lease, and the pandemic has slowed down some of those communication channels, but one person is able to have up to four LPAs as a private citizen, and in California, for example, you can't do that. We do have the opportunity for one person, if you have the capital, to go out and do that. 

There are certain things that you need to know, you need to have boat safety, you need to have money to purchase a boat and the gear. But there is so much opportunity for innovation and being creative. That's the thing that I think we love about this industry, among so many others. 

JC: A big thing that I would recommend to people that are interested in this industry is to go work on an oyster farm first. It’s very labor intensive. Doing everything on land is great, but you put it on the water and it's entirely different. It’s a lot to manage, test the water, get experience, and try different things in the industry. Take the time to learn first, it will be really beneficial and help you be more creative on your own farm and see what works and doesn't and how to do it best for your lifestyle. 

LD: It’s also setting intention behind your business

MVM: And you don't necessarily have to have a farm, maybe you can be involved in aquaculture with other avenues and other ways.

JC: Or volunteering to figure out if it's really something for you. 

LD: We definitely did that. 

MVM: Can I ask you some fun questions? I don't know much about oysters, I had my first oyster last month. They are amazing. What I call “toppings”, what is the word you use for these!?

LD: The accoutrements and the mignonette. It is like the sauce, it’s a champagne-vinegar base. Then you have the lemons, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, etc. That's usually what we'll have at our private events. 

MVM: What are your favorite toppings that you like? 

“Everything has a totally different flavor profile. The month of the year really affects their taste, in the fall they're filled with glycogen, getting fat to be in hibernation mode, that's when they're sweet. If you chew the actual abductor muscle of the oyster during those months it tastes like candy. It's amazing.” - Jacqueline Clarke

LD: If it's an oyster I have never tried before I like to try it raw first on the half shell so I can really get the flavor. We source from 16 different farms all up and down the coast and try to get a good variety in with the events we do and have a couple of different varieties at each event so that people can compare and contrast the different flavor profiles from different farms. With oysters being filter feeders, the body of water that they're grown in and their ecological conditions will completely influence the flavor profile of the oyster. 

An oyster grown in the Damariscotta River is going to taste a lot different from ones grown in floating bags in Casco Bay, which is going to be a much deeper brine, whereas river oysters grown in that brackish water, their flavor gets a little more complex and with that minerality, grassy vegetative, bottom grown oysters that are grown in the mud, those are going to taste totally different. Both the culture that they're grown in, as well as the body of water influence their flavor. Getting back to your question… 

MVM: You just went through your entire Lady Schucker event spiel. 

LD: Yea, that was my elevator pitch! So with the oysters, I like them raw on the half shell with lemon, that's my favorite way to eat them. Some of that acidity and it's same with the mignonette, that vinegar base from the lemon from the mignonette, it helps to cut through the saltiness of the oyster and pairs really nicely on the palate. 

JC: I eat mine without anything. I like the taste, I think it's amazing. As Libby mentioned, everything has a totally different flavor profile. The month of the year really affects their taste, in the fall they're filled with glycogen, getting fat to be in hibernation mode, that's when they're sweet. If you chew the actual abductor muscle of the oyster during those months it tastes like candy. It's amazing. 

I also get real bougie with my oyster sometimes, so I really love putting sea urchins on them, the salinity of the urchin and the butteriness pair really well with oysters. If you grill them, I really love doing a seaweed miso butter roast oyster, because you get savoriness from the seaweed and that flavor profile and it pairs really well with the oyster and it's really really fantastic.

LD: Jacqueline is our in-house chef, she's the foodie. 

JC: I put a lot of stuff on my oysters to find out what works. 

MVM: That all sounds so good and I am now very hungry! Alright, so someone asked what do you both do for fun outside of Lady Shuckers?

LD: Well I love to run. I used to run track and cross-country all through high school and college. Meditation is great, yoga is great. I love music. It's been wonderful to tap into the local music and art scene here in Portland, I’ve made a lot of really amazing friendships that way that I think will generate some good events this summer in the form of oysters and musical collaborations. I recently got sober from alcohol so that's been an amazing journey. It’s the go-to to pair oysters with alcohol, so I'm interested in broadening my own perspective on what types of collaborative events we can do in an effort of making oysters more inclusive for families or people that are sober like me. 

JC: I do work another job.

MVM: Do you still practice law?

JC: I do, I'm in-house counsel for a company focusing on health care. It helps me think differently about food in the sense that, I look at food from a business perspective; how do I plan this, how do we do this, how do we scale this, how do I offer advice to people because all my friends in Maine are an aquaculture food? Having that additional lens to look through those industries has been really helpful. And I love food, I've always worked in restaurants my whole life, I love anything related to food. 

I also do photography on the side, I've started doing a lot of projects for different agriculture and fishery and food businesses, but it's something that I don't see as work because it's a way to be creative and continue to learn. Sometimes when you’re looking at numbers and contracts, the ability to have a creative outlet is really fun and important and good for mental wellness. Photography also creates a way for me to preserve memories and experiences, so many of my memories are centered around food, so it's something that's always been really important for me.

MVM: I love it, thank you for answering those questions! Do you want to give a shout-out to other women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, or disability-owned businesses in Maine? 

LD: I definitely want to shout out some of the ride-or-die farmers that are always down to get us oysters at a moment's notice. Emily's Oysters, Alicia Gaiero at Nautisisters Sea Farm, Darcy Couture at Whiskey Stones Oysters… 

JC: The ladies from Basket Island Oyster Company, Wolfe Neck Oyster Company, Sadia from OystHERS, she's such a joy.

LD: We work with some amazing queer creatives. I realized when I touched my earrings, I'm wearing these by Big Feelings Jewelry that's run by an amazing woman named Sierra. 

JC: We have to give a shout out to Rust & Such, Ashley Charleson, she's an oyster farmer and she has her own earring line where the colors are inspired by all the different fish that she works with as a marine biologist. She designed the colors to flow like the scales, true to how they look. The time that she puts into her jewelry is insane, and the artistry is incredible. 

LD: She does it to match the body patterning on different fish or oyster shells, she does a great job. There's Jenna Joan, who's a queer photographer, who I had my first photoshoot with, which I did to feel empowered and we incorporated oysters into it. 

Then there are some amazing musicians. My friend, Graphic Melee who has put together a lot of amazing shows that Monday Of The Minds, there's Amanda Mack Davis, a queer black woman who's started performing individually and has such quality to her voice. My friend Jamaica who works at Après, empowering tools by jam makes earrings makes jewelry.

I wish that we sourced from more minority-owned farms, currently, there are no farms owned by people of color. We do source from the 16 women-owned farms and that list is going to grow. We source from one trans-owned farm, Pound of Tea Oysters, that’s my friend Owen Heil. We would love to expand to BIPOC-owned farms. 

MVM: Thank you so much for all those great businesses!!  It was great talking with you both! Do you want to mention anything else about either one of you or Lady Shuckers? 

LD: I think we're so glad we started during the pandemic. 

JC: When it seemed like a lot of businesses were struggling, we were thriving. 

LD: Yeah, we were incubating for a long time and are so grateful for all these relationships that came together in this space of Maine Oyster Company, largely, to be able to collaborate together and put these ideas around and see a need for what we're creating, this divine feminine energy, which is really what we're talking about. 

We would go to the beach with oysters and let people know, Lady Shuckers! The people at Maine Sea Grant, our close friends, Heather Sudusky, and Jaclyn Robidoux were really pushing us to say, hey, this idea has legs and that we should do it. It's been a completely community-inspired effort from the beginning.

JC: Another thing, it’s something that I'm working on with people on the west coast, but the idea of women in fisheries and women shucking oysters is not new, maybe in Maine, but it's not new in other places around the country. The women were a part of the oyster industry in different states, like on the Chesapeake, or out in native lands in Washington State. A lot of them are either Indigenous women or women of color. The thing I struggle with sometimes is that these women were never really given voices or visibility. A lot of them work in shucking houses and there's a socioeconomic factor. I struggle with our visibility for us and as individuals, but there are other women out there who need recognition for their work and livelihood and have been around way longer than we have.

They have been fundamental to those industries that are the economic makeup of states and industries out there. Aquaculture in those states is shifting, some of those sectors are dying out, but I hope there's more historical recognition for the past and things moving forward for women there.

LD:  Shout out to Imani Black of Minorities In Aquaculture, who's putting people of color on the map and creating so much visibility down in Maryland for what Jacqueline is talking about. They are a really cool nonprofit that you should check out.

MVM: Awesome, I will. Thank you both so much. We don't know each other very well, but I'm super fucking proud of you for doing this work, so thank you!

Links:

Imani Black - Minorities in Aquaculture

Pound of Tea Oysters

Amanda Mack Davis

Emily’s Oysters

Nautisisters Sea Farm

Whiskey Stones Oysters

Basket Island Oyster Company

Wolfe Neck Oyster Company

OystHERS

Big Feelings Jewelry

Rust & Such

Jenna Joan

Monday Of The Minds

Thank you to Libby Davis and Jacqueline Clarke for your time and sharing your story with MVM. Catch Lady Shuckers out and about this summer with their mobile raw bar.

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Web: thebrinybabe.com

Instagram: @ladyshuckers

Instagram: @thebrinybabe