Inside an oyster hatchery on the western shore of PEI, an array of plastic vessels pumps algae-rich water to millions of tiny black dots – some as small as poppy seeds. They’re teeny, tiny baby oysters, specifically bred from the few that have survivedmultinucleate sphere unknown, or MSX, a deadly oyster disease caused by microscopic parasites.
ELLERSLIE, P.E.I. (06/26/26) – A tour of the Bideford Shellfish Hatchery in Lennox Island First Nation on June 26, 2026. Pictured here, hatchery manager and geneticist Guy Perry in the algal rearing lab which is cultivated to feed oyster seed. The hatchery currently produces about 45 million oyster seed annually, a fraction of P.E.I.'s demand for roughly 400 million seed each year. It is developing MSX-resistant oyster seed to help combat the parasite's devastation of the P.E.I. oyster industry by selectively breeding broodstock from oysters that have naturally survived MSX. Its first batch of resistant seed was deployed last spring and has achieved an 85 per cent survival rate so far, offering hope for Atlantic Canada's oyster industry. Photo by Vanessa Tignanelli/The Globe & Mail
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