The Gwynn’s Island-based business, which cultivates and sells Chesapeake Bay oyster seed, has developed three “hatcheries on wheels,” using new technology that enables the company to produce seed in quantity in a mobile facility. This will eventually allow the business to expand to other markets.

The project is currently undergoing a feasibility study, said Dr. Michael Congrove, owner/operator of Oyster Seed Holdings. The study is financed by a competitive USDA Small Business Innovative Research Grant in partnership with the University of Georgia and Florida State University.

Congrove said he came up with the idea of using a trailer to raise seed as a way of dealing with what he thought might be a water quality issue specific to Milford Haven, where the business is located. A mobile facility would allow him to try various sites in other water bodies in the region to determine if the problem he was having with growing oyster larvae was because of the water quality in Milford Have...