With millions of dead oysters and mounting debt, P.E.I. farmers fear they'll lose everything

LISTEN | Oyster farmer says P.E.I. industry is facing 'a massacre':

The Current21:29Inside the PEI oyster crisis

When Kaila Richard is out on the water of her oyster farm in western P.E.I., she often thinks of her late father, who ran the farm until his sudden death in an accident in 2021.

“Being out here, I feel my father close,” said Kaila, who took over the farm in the Dock River, near Alberton, with her husband Bruce Richard.

“[When] we make mistakes, I can hear my dad saying, 'What are yous doing?!' … and when things go right I'm like, ‘Oh he'd be so proud,’” she told CBC Radio’s The Current.

The Richards took out hefty loans to upgrade the farm in recent years, installing expensive new equipment and spending long days tending their crop. But all that hard work is in jeopardy as two diseases rip through the Island’s oyster industry. 

Farmers have pulled up millions of dead oysters, their shells piled high around P.E.I.

“The whole island is just a massacre at this point,” said Bruce.

“There's about a dozen farmers in this little section of river back here, and we're all in the same boat. Everybody's seeing upwards of 90 per cent, 95 per cent dead loss.”

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The diseases, multinucleate sphere unknown (MSX) and dermo, were detected in P.E.I. waters in 2024 and 2025, respectively. While harmless to humans, both parasites are fatal to oysters, with some growers reporting 100 per cent mortality rates.

The provincial and federal governments announced various support programs earlier this year, including financial relief, mental health support and approval for the import of disease-resistant oyster seed. Experts hope this seed could be cultivated to replenish oyster stocks on the island, but the process takes at least three years to grow from seed, with no guarantee of success.

Farmers say they need sustained financial support, and soon, to stay afloat in the interim.

“You can't hemorrhage money for three to five, [maybe] seven years … we don't have a million dollars sitting in the bank to make payments,” said Bruce, adding that at the time of his interview, his farm had not yet received any of the promised funding.

Jeff Noye, an oyster grower and the mayor of Tyne Valley in western P.E.I., said that oysters aren’t just a job on the island, but “a way of life.”

He worries if farmers don’t get more help, bigger corporations could come in and take over.

“Right now, the oyster industry is full of independent fishers. Men and women who work for themselves, by themselves … and we take a lot of pride in that,” said Noye, who is also the co-owner of Valley Pearl Oysters bar and restaurant in Tyne Valley.

But if those farmers can’t pay their bills, then “some of the companies with some big pockets can come in and snatch everything up,” he said. 

“All of a sudden we're all working for them — and I hope that doesn't happen.”

Calls for income support

Mussel farmers in the Maritimes faced a similar issue when invasive species upended the industry 20 years ago, said Peter Warris, executive director of P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance.

“Margins were pretty tight. We saw expenses were going up. We saw more and more growers selling out — and selling out to the big guys,” he said.

In a lot of cases, he said, those same farmers were then hired by the big companies, who needed experienced workers, familiar with the waterways.

“They're going to get paid by a bigger company rather than paying themselves. Is that good? No,” he said. “But is it better than nothing? I suppose, I mean I guess that's up to the individual.”

Warris’s organization represents both smaller farmers and bigger organizations. He wants greater financial support over the next few years, arguing it would both help individual farmers stay in business — and help the industry bounce back as a whole. 

In a statement emailed to The Current, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) said it is working “to support the long-term sustainability of the oyster sector,” including investments in scientific research to better understand and respond to the parasites.

DFO also pointed to a customer support program available through Farm Credit Canada (FCC). 

When contacted by The Current, FCC said in an email that it will work with individual farmers to explore their options, including the potential “deferral of principal payments and/or other loan payment schedule amendments to reduce the financial pressure on those affected by oyster diseases.”

“The bottom line is we want to remain flexible and ensure producers have sufficient cash flow to get into the next production cycle,” the FCC statement said.

In a separate email statement, P.E.I.’s Department of Fisheries, Rural Development and Tourism pointed The Current to a handful of programs designed to provide “a financial safety net to eligible oyster growers.”

Warris worries this patchwork of programs might not be enough. 

“There's no basic level of income support for growers right now and … there's fuel costs, wage costs, all these other things,” he said.

“Whilst there are programs out there for some of it, there isn't anything that will just give some basic income to keep people moving for the next three years.”

Warris said that with so much uncertainty, some farmers might decide to sell to bigger operations. But financial support would mean they won’t “have to sell at fire-sale prices.”

Government is ‘giving up’

Fishers of wild oysters are also struggling with the diseases. They’ve been forced to travel further to find healthy oysters, increasing costs for an often reduced harvest.

In August, the federal government offered $40,000 to buy back 150 eligible fishing licences on a first-come, first-served basis. Recipients would not be able to reapply for an oyster fishing licence for 10 years.

Bob Macleod, president of the P.E.I. Shellfish Association (PEISA), said his organization advised the federal government to take a different approach. He thinks the buyback program should have been rolled out over three years and coupled with a wage subsidy. That would have given the worst affected fishers the option to leave, but it might have encouraged others to weather the storm a little longer, he said. 

“You can't give up. You’ve got to keep trying different things. So when the government says we'll take 150 licences, they're giving up, and that is not right,” he said.

“It's going to be hard to keep enough people interested to make it bounce back.”

In its emailed statement, DFO said the buyback program aims to “help reduce pressure on vulnerable wild oyster stocks while supporting affected harvesters and coastal communities.”

DFO added that PEISA’s proposals contributed to the design of the buyback program, but the final initiative differs “due to the urgency of the situation and the government’s objective of balancing targeted support with broad accessibility.”

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‘A better day’

The devastation of their crop has taken a toll on Kaila and Bruce’s mental health, a sentiment echoed by many other oyster farmers and fishers on P.E.I.

“When we see each other out here, we all say, ‘Have a better day,’” Kaila said. “Because it's not ‘Have a good day,’ — just have a better day.”

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For now, Bruce has taken work building lobster boats to make ends meet. He hopes the disease-resistant seed can get the industry back on track but says farmers need help “to get us between today and when those get to market.”

“It's hard to actually look at it and say, ‘Yeah, I'll still be working here in five years’ time,” he said. “Because we don't really know.”

Kaila has a tattoo of an anchor, an oyster, a line of her father’s handwriting and a compass “because he always guided me through my life.”

“It's more than just our business. It started out because of my father,” she said.

“I definitely have the fight in me, and we're gonna fight for it.”