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St. Peters Bay is an excellent place for mussels because it is a good place to grow spat" Russell Dockendorff Jr., explained:

The Bay doesn’t have the tidal flow. It’s about a three-foot

maximum tidal flow, so the spat that the mussels produce remains in the bay system It collects the spat, holds it within that body of water, and then we provide spat collectors for it to collect onto. (45)

The Dockendorff‘s are able to keep about one third of their crop in St. Peters Bay. The rest of the spat is collected from the Bay and transported to other rivers to grow out where there is more room.

The processing of the mussels is simply a matter of cleaning and packaging them, which takes place at their plant located on the Red Head Road in Morell.* Currently, the mussels grown in St. Peters Bay are shipped all over North America and to parts of Europe and Japan. Their large volume of export has earned Pure Water Mussel Farms the distinction of being the largest single mussel grower on the Island.

In the summer of 1996, the family business was expanded by Russell Jr. and Stewart to include the cultivation of oysters. The Dockendorffs purchased public beds from as far as Cascumpec right down to East River. Although the cultivation of oysters is a different process, in that it is a five to six year process, they started to cultivate to oysters in the same fashion as mussels in St. Peters Bay, Cardigan, and Boughton. (46) Currently the Oysters are processed at an Oyster Hatchery owned by the Dockendorff family, which is located on the Greenwich Road.* Owned by Russell Jr. and Stewart, the “Oyster Bay Farms" is the growing arm; the “Atlantic Shell Fish" is the manufacturing Or processing ann; and the “Atlantic Marine Sea" is the hatchery aspect of their operation.

For the Dockendorff family, success has been very rewarding, esPecially, according to Russell Jr. in what their business has been able to contribute to the Island’s economy:

There was always a goal to be able to better not only ourselves, but also the corrununity in which we lived. That was one of the things about mussels that was interesting, in that sales were off-Island. It was new money coming into the province and that is what we wanted. When the money is staying on the Island, it is going to our workers. That was one of the goals and we’ve accomplished it. [4 7)

k—

‘ Spat is a mollusk. such as oysters and mussels. in the larval stage.

The DOCkendo'rff’s original mussel plant was located right at the wharf in Red Head, but in 1996 a new P’am was built just one hundred yards off the wharf.

The OYSter Hatchery was built in the winter of 1997, and was in operation in the early sprig of 1998.

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