Today is a wonderful and a horrible day, because it is official end of my senior project. It is wonderful, because the project has been absolutely exhausting. But I think that it is even more horrible, because I have so enjoyed learning and performing everything. Since this is my last journal entry, I have decided to do a small recap on my project as a whole.
Originally my goals for my project were very different from what they are today. I had planed to have oysters inside and outside and create two business models for the two methods of culture. My original plan became a moot point, once I actually began to learn about the oyster culture.
(My idea of writing a business plan based on oysters grown inside would have been a total waste of time because: oysters are never grown inside since they filter too much food, having enough tank space would make the costs unbelievable, the electricity bill to grow food for them would also be sky high. The list goes on.)
As my project evolved it became a lot more focused on the business side of oyster aquaculture. I think I was really draw to that side of the project, because it was something that I really did not know anything about. I had vague notions of business being really boring and uninteresting, however I found it to be the complete opposite. What I enjoy most about businesses is that there are, in fact, so many different components that go into a business. It is like having a giant puzzle, where all the pieces are items that are costs, revenues, assets, etc. and you are trying to get them all together to create an image of profit. It's really a lot of fun.
So my main goals in the second half of the project were the ones that have stayed. I really wanted to have a complete business plan and model. However, since I really did not know anything about either business plans or models, I spend most of my time learning, rather than doing. I do not have a business plan written, which is quite disappointing. I do however have a working model, that I created with the help of my mom, which is more than I ever though was possible.
In short, my project wasn't anything I expected it to be, it did not go as planed, and it didn't end the way I wanted it to, but I couldn't be any more pleased with it.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Thursday May 15, 2014
Today was a pretty productive day.
My first order of business today was retrieving my prom dress from Packaging and Receiving. I have been waiting for my dress for over a month, so it was such a relief to have it and try it on. (It fits well, except it is far too long. My mom said that she will get it hemmed over the weekend.) After trying on my dress, I went to my two classes of the day, Lifeboatmen and Physics. I still cannot believe that I did not drop physics for my project. I cannot even remember my justification for keeping it. I am pretty sure it was so I would understand more of the concepts when I went to college in case I need to take it again. But, since I never really understood physics to begin with, it seems silly. Anyway, aside from classes and my prom dress. I also had my last Tabor Dance Recital tonight. It was really sad, since it was my last one for TADC, but I think it was one of the best dance recitals Tabor had ever seen. Everyone did really well and I am enormously proud of our squad.
After yesterday's budgeting, I realized that I am in debt for each of my 5 years at the end of each year. My complied debt for the first 5 years is about $596,000. At first I was totally freaking out, but after talking to my mom and Mr. Meleo, I was feeling better about my debt situation. They explained to me that I only need to cover the essential costs of that year and the depreciation of my assets. I also do not need to worry about paying off my loan immediately, as it will most likely be paid of in monthly installments over a period of years.
Although their advice alleviated my worries, I am still not sure weather my business is a viable one the way it is currently set up. So what I want to talk about is Economics of Scale in businesses. Economics of Scale is "the cost advantage that arises with an increased amount of profit." (Investopedia) In other words, the more products I sell, the less the cost per product. In order for my business to become viable, I must either considerably reduce my costs or I must sell enough oysters to cover my costs. I am not yet sure which I will be doing.
My first order of business today was retrieving my prom dress from Packaging and Receiving. I have been waiting for my dress for over a month, so it was such a relief to have it and try it on. (It fits well, except it is far too long. My mom said that she will get it hemmed over the weekend.) After trying on my dress, I went to my two classes of the day, Lifeboatmen and Physics. I still cannot believe that I did not drop physics for my project. I cannot even remember my justification for keeping it. I am pretty sure it was so I would understand more of the concepts when I went to college in case I need to take it again. But, since I never really understood physics to begin with, it seems silly. Anyway, aside from classes and my prom dress. I also had my last Tabor Dance Recital tonight. It was really sad, since it was my last one for TADC, but I think it was one of the best dance recitals Tabor had ever seen. Everyone did really well and I am enormously proud of our squad.
After yesterday's budgeting, I realized that I am in debt for each of my 5 years at the end of each year. My complied debt for the first 5 years is about $596,000. At first I was totally freaking out, but after talking to my mom and Mr. Meleo, I was feeling better about my debt situation. They explained to me that I only need to cover the essential costs of that year and the depreciation of my assets. I also do not need to worry about paying off my loan immediately, as it will most likely be paid of in monthly installments over a period of years.
Although their advice alleviated my worries, I am still not sure weather my business is a viable one the way it is currently set up. So what I want to talk about is Economics of Scale in businesses. Economics of Scale is "the cost advantage that arises with an increased amount of profit." (Investopedia) In other words, the more products I sell, the less the cost per product. In order for my business to become viable, I must either considerably reduce my costs or I must sell enough oysters to cover my costs. I am not yet sure which I will be doing.
Tuesday May 13, 2014
Today was a good day.
I still haven't quite gotten over my stomach bug from yesterday, but fortunately I feel much better. Because I did not eat yesterday, due to the bug, I was starving. However, I still felt too sick to eat, so I was having a huge internal struggle with weather or not to kick the bucket and do it.
Aside from my bug struggle, today was very important because it was the last day I did water quality. I decided today would be my last day, for a variety of reasons. The first being the temperature of the water on the surface. It was a whopping 65.7 degrees, which means that there is definitely going to be considerable growth through out the week. The other reason I decided to stop was that I was feeling crunched for time with my project.
So, since today was my last day, I decided to do a recap on my findings. At the beginning of the project, the water quality sampling was going to go towards my research, but as my project evolved, it has changed in its function. Now water quality tests are more to answer a question I was curious about.
Will there actually be growth throughout the oyster growing season (April-November)? I had been wondering, since most people say that the oyster season is from April to November, but people also say that algae doesn't grow enough before June to have any significant growth. While of course this does depend on the weather patterns of the year, I was still curious, because a two month difference in growing periods really affects the total sales of a farm.
I am not sure that my results were completely accurate, because the weather this spring has been fluctuating a lot. However, I believe that I can conclusively say that the growing season for oysters runs more mid-May-November than it does April-November. From my results, I noticed that the majority of the growth occurred over the last two weeks of the project (weeks 6 and 7). This correlated with the more constant warm weather and lack of wind in early May. Something I found interesting about my results is that for the last two weeks my cell densities were much lower than I expected them to be. At first I was quite worried, but then I realized that they were probably much lower than before, because they oysters were filtering the algae out of the water and using it to grow.
I still haven't quite gotten over my stomach bug from yesterday, but fortunately I feel much better. Because I did not eat yesterday, due to the bug, I was starving. However, I still felt too sick to eat, so I was having a huge internal struggle with weather or not to kick the bucket and do it.
Aside from my bug struggle, today was very important because it was the last day I did water quality. I decided today would be my last day, for a variety of reasons. The first being the temperature of the water on the surface. It was a whopping 65.7 degrees, which means that there is definitely going to be considerable growth through out the week. The other reason I decided to stop was that I was feeling crunched for time with my project.
So, since today was my last day, I decided to do a recap on my findings. At the beginning of the project, the water quality sampling was going to go towards my research, but as my project evolved, it has changed in its function. Now water quality tests are more to answer a question I was curious about.
Will there actually be growth throughout the oyster growing season (April-November)? I had been wondering, since most people say that the oyster season is from April to November, but people also say that algae doesn't grow enough before June to have any significant growth. While of course this does depend on the weather patterns of the year, I was still curious, because a two month difference in growing periods really affects the total sales of a farm.
I am not sure that my results were completely accurate, because the weather this spring has been fluctuating a lot. However, I believe that I can conclusively say that the growing season for oysters runs more mid-May-November than it does April-November. From my results, I noticed that the majority of the growth occurred over the last two weeks of the project (weeks 6 and 7). This correlated with the more constant warm weather and lack of wind in early May. Something I found interesting about my results is that for the last two weeks my cell densities were much lower than I expected them to be. At first I was quite worried, but then I realized that they were probably much lower than before, because they oysters were filtering the algae out of the water and using it to grow.
Wednesday May 14, 2014
Today I didn't have any classes. Instead, I worked with my mom on my senior project during the school day. After school, I had a a full dress rehearsal for my dance recital on Thursday. The dress rehearsal was good, but I was really tired, especially since I hadn't eaten or slept much due to my stomach bug. I was also dancing on and injured knee and hip, which didn't help at all. (I am also really annoyed because I ruined a pair of tights, because I dropped to my knees during a dance and bled through my tights.) Also, on a completely unrelated but very exciting note, my prom dress arrived today.
Working with my mom went really well. We revised my budget and inventory spreadsheets and created gross sales and income statement sheets.
In my budget, we added several categories, including deliveries, marketing, and business taxes. Deliveries were a pretty large cost to be added. It added about $15,000 to my budget, with more in the second year, since that is the year I am investing in the refrigerated trucks. Marketing added around $10,000per year. It was funny, because although I had been doing a lot of reading last week about serving and entertaining with oysters, I completely forgot about all the costs of doing so. In my budget, I have only accounted for marketing trips and the occasional business dinner. However, many oyster farms have large festivals to advertize. I decided that in my first 5 years, I would not be putting up anything so extravagant. Finally business taxes were thought of by my mom. According to her they are calculated using total revenue and are very important, because not paying them equates to tax evasion. For the inventory spreadsheets we changed the year from January-December to May-April, since May is the month in which I will get my seed.
My gross sales spreadsheet is one that shows my sales per month, per year, monthly gross sales, annual gross sales, and annual gross sales including inflation. It is helpful for calculating the most amount of money I could possibly expect to earn that year. My income statement is a simple spreadsheet that charts my annual costs, gross annual sales, and gross annual revenues for each year. It shows me whether I am making money or not.
Aside from adding categories and items that I had previously missed, we also bean creating formulas and linking my different spreadsheets, so that I could manipulate the numbers and totals. Here is a video of me doing some formula manipulation in Excel. (I am sorry for the length.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPhjtTPfAnM
Working with my mom went really well. We revised my budget and inventory spreadsheets and created gross sales and income statement sheets.
In my budget, we added several categories, including deliveries, marketing, and business taxes. Deliveries were a pretty large cost to be added. It added about $15,000 to my budget, with more in the second year, since that is the year I am investing in the refrigerated trucks. Marketing added around $10,000per year. It was funny, because although I had been doing a lot of reading last week about serving and entertaining with oysters, I completely forgot about all the costs of doing so. In my budget, I have only accounted for marketing trips and the occasional business dinner. However, many oyster farms have large festivals to advertize. I decided that in my first 5 years, I would not be putting up anything so extravagant. Finally business taxes were thought of by my mom. According to her they are calculated using total revenue and are very important, because not paying them equates to tax evasion. For the inventory spreadsheets we changed the year from January-December to May-April, since May is the month in which I will get my seed.
My gross sales spreadsheet is one that shows my sales per month, per year, monthly gross sales, annual gross sales, and annual gross sales including inflation. It is helpful for calculating the most amount of money I could possibly expect to earn that year. My income statement is a simple spreadsheet that charts my annual costs, gross annual sales, and gross annual revenues for each year. It shows me whether I am making money or not.
Aside from adding categories and items that I had previously missed, we also bean creating formulas and linking my different spreadsheets, so that I could manipulate the numbers and totals. Here is a video of me doing some formula manipulation in Excel. (I am sorry for the length.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPhjtTPfAnM
Monday May 12, 2014
Today was an experience. (I'm just going to leave it at that.)
My day started with a 24 hour stomach bug. (I originally thought it was food poisoning from the dance team trip to IHOP; a move that I strongly disagreed with. However the nurses later diagnosed me with a gastrointestinal bug that had been wandering around the school.) I won't go into details, but it was a rough start. So, not only did I have a bug, I also had to take my AP Biology Exam that day. Needless to say, by the time my exam let out, which was around 12:00 PM, I felt like I was dying. Luckily, for the rest of the day I did not have classes; just one make up quiz, which was quick. Since I did not have classes and could not move without feeling sick, I went to the health center for the rest of the day (rest of the day being rest of classes and sports).
Even though I was sick, I actually managed to accomplish a lot. From my mom budgeting time on Saturday, I had a lot of "assignments." The first was to do some research to fill in various costs. For example, under the insurance heading, how much is property insurance and crop insurance. (SIDE NOTE: I actually never found out specifically how much either would be, since one involved calling an insurance representative and the other involved calling the USDA.) The second task was to finish a spreadsheet of my inventory of oysters for the first 5 years. As you can see from the picture below, I have each year broken down into my my deliveries, loses, demos/samples, and sales. Using this spreadsheet I can see exactly how many oysters I can expect to have on hand at any given month during my first five years. I can also use it to show the change in total inventory per week. (In the picture, I have my years going from May to April, rather than January through December. This is a change I made later in the week.)
Although, my stomach bug was an obstacle that I didn't need or want at this stage of the project, it actually allowed me to have more time to work and research. I still haven't gotten over my GI bug, but I am hoping that by tomorrow I will.
My day started with a 24 hour stomach bug. (I originally thought it was food poisoning from the dance team trip to IHOP; a move that I strongly disagreed with. However the nurses later diagnosed me with a gastrointestinal bug that had been wandering around the school.) I won't go into details, but it was a rough start. So, not only did I have a bug, I also had to take my AP Biology Exam that day. Needless to say, by the time my exam let out, which was around 12:00 PM, I felt like I was dying. Luckily, for the rest of the day I did not have classes; just one make up quiz, which was quick. Since I did not have classes and could not move without feeling sick, I went to the health center for the rest of the day (rest of the day being rest of classes and sports).
Even though I was sick, I actually managed to accomplish a lot. From my mom budgeting time on Saturday, I had a lot of "assignments." The first was to do some research to fill in various costs. For example, under the insurance heading, how much is property insurance and crop insurance. (SIDE NOTE: I actually never found out specifically how much either would be, since one involved calling an insurance representative and the other involved calling the USDA.) The second task was to finish a spreadsheet of my inventory of oysters for the first 5 years. As you can see from the picture below, I have each year broken down into my my deliveries, loses, demos/samples, and sales. Using this spreadsheet I can see exactly how many oysters I can expect to have on hand at any given month during my first five years. I can also use it to show the change in total inventory per week. (In the picture, I have my years going from May to April, rather than January through December. This is a change I made later in the week.)
Although, my stomach bug was an obstacle that I didn't need or want at this stage of the project, it actually allowed me to have more time to work and research. I still haven't gotten over my GI bug, but I am hoping that by tomorrow I will.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Saturday May 10, 2014
Today was a really BIG day.
I woke up early to a totally filthy room. Of course I only noticed it was filthy, because my mom was coming that day. I was actually really impressed, because in the 30 minutes I had before dance practice began, I was able to shower, dress, and completely clean my room. Dance practice went for around two hours (10-12) and then I ran off to go complete some community service (12-2). Community service was really fun, I helped out at an Arbor Day celebration at Washburn Park. There were tons of kids, a petting zoo, and a lot of free ice cream and pizza, so I was pretty happy. After community service was mom time.
My mom drove down, as promised, to help me with the budgeting portion of my project. I think we worked from around 2 to at least 6, on the budgeting and spreadsheeting alone. Somehow or other, I managed to learn more about Exel during this afternoon than I have ever learned before. (I did not realize it was possible, but I have fallen in love with a computer programming system.)
So the first thing we did was set up my budget for year one. We ended up splitting my categories into my culture system, facilities, permits & licensing, insurance, labor, and professional services. As you can see from the example above, each category was further split into items, unit prices for the items, inflation, the number of units, a description, and the total cost of the item. This organizational system helped me a lot, since many of my frustrations came from not being able to figure out how to organize my information.
The other main source of frustration came from not knowing how to mathematically model my information. Of course my mom and Excel had an answer to that as well. It's called a formula. When you click in a box, you can either type in a number, words, or a formula. (There might be other things, but I am not sure. Those are the ones I use.) Before my mom showed me how to use formulas in Exel, I had been doing all the math on my own, on a dinky four function calculator (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). Instead of using Excel, as a glorified table, I can instead make it do all my math for me an more!
I will try to post a link to a video of me building my budget.
I woke up early to a totally filthy room. Of course I only noticed it was filthy, because my mom was coming that day. I was actually really impressed, because in the 30 minutes I had before dance practice began, I was able to shower, dress, and completely clean my room. Dance practice went for around two hours (10-12) and then I ran off to go complete some community service (12-2). Community service was really fun, I helped out at an Arbor Day celebration at Washburn Park. There were tons of kids, a petting zoo, and a lot of free ice cream and pizza, so I was pretty happy. After community service was mom time.
My mom drove down, as promised, to help me with the budgeting portion of my project. I think we worked from around 2 to at least 6, on the budgeting and spreadsheeting alone. Somehow or other, I managed to learn more about Exel during this afternoon than I have ever learned before. (I did not realize it was possible, but I have fallen in love with a computer programming system.)
So the first thing we did was set up my budget for year one. We ended up splitting my categories into my culture system, facilities, permits & licensing, insurance, labor, and professional services. As you can see from the example above, each category was further split into items, unit prices for the items, inflation, the number of units, a description, and the total cost of the item. This organizational system helped me a lot, since many of my frustrations came from not being able to figure out how to organize my information.
The other main source of frustration came from not knowing how to mathematically model my information. Of course my mom and Excel had an answer to that as well. It's called a formula. When you click in a box, you can either type in a number, words, or a formula. (There might be other things, but I am not sure. Those are the ones I use.) Before my mom showed me how to use formulas in Exel, I had been doing all the math on my own, on a dinky four function calculator (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). Instead of using Excel, as a glorified table, I can instead make it do all my math for me an more!
I will try to post a link to a video of me building my budget.
Friday May 9, 2014
This Friday was much better than the last. I took my water quality in the morning and later I did my second to last weigh and measure. ( I say second to last, but it actually might be the last depending on what my scheduling looks like next week.)
After my disaster last week, I did this weigh and measure by hand. So, rather than putting my figures directly into Excel, I wrote them down on a post it note. It took longer, but after loosing all that data, I preferred to take the time. (Honestly I am still upset about loosing that data. It really isn't imperative to the success of my project, but I would have preferred to have complete data.)
I was pretty happy with this week because the oysters are really starting to grow. Obviously, since I do not have last week's data, I cannot say how much they grew in the week, but I am guessing anywhere from 0.3-0.5 grams and about 0.5mm. From two weeks ago, there is a 0.8 gram difference in weight and 0.91 mm difference in length, which is also really great. (I am hoping to graph the progression of their growth for my presentation.)
Here are some things I noticed about they oysters during this week's weight and measure. First of all there were no dead oysters. They all survived from last week, which was expected, but still gratifying to see. There was some growth around the exterior of the shell (length). This is the growth I had been worried about last week, so I was really glad to see it. Of course now that the oysters are putting on growth lengthwise the way I wanted, I am now worried that they are laying on too much shell and not enough belly. I dropped a couple of them and they sounded decidedly solid. I also noticed that there were several shrimp larvae jumping around the table that had been in the bags with the oysters. (I am not actually positive they were shrimp larvae, but for my own sake I'm going to just believe that is what they were.) Aside from the shrimp larvae, there were small bug looking things that were hiding in the slime of the oyster. I only discovered them, because I was trying to scrape the slime off of an oyster and about 20 of them came scuttling out. It was as though I had poked an ant hill. Needless to say it was absolutely disgusting.
After my disaster last week, I did this weigh and measure by hand. So, rather than putting my figures directly into Excel, I wrote them down on a post it note. It took longer, but after loosing all that data, I preferred to take the time. (Honestly I am still upset about loosing that data. It really isn't imperative to the success of my project, but I would have preferred to have complete data.)
I was pretty happy with this week because the oysters are really starting to grow. Obviously, since I do not have last week's data, I cannot say how much they grew in the week, but I am guessing anywhere from 0.3-0.5 grams and about 0.5mm. From two weeks ago, there is a 0.8 gram difference in weight and 0.91 mm difference in length, which is also really great. (I am hoping to graph the progression of their growth for my presentation.)
Here are some things I noticed about they oysters during this week's weight and measure. First of all there were no dead oysters. They all survived from last week, which was expected, but still gratifying to see. There was some growth around the exterior of the shell (length). This is the growth I had been worried about last week, so I was really glad to see it. Of course now that the oysters are putting on growth lengthwise the way I wanted, I am now worried that they are laying on too much shell and not enough belly. I dropped a couple of them and they sounded decidedly solid. I also noticed that there were several shrimp larvae jumping around the table that had been in the bags with the oysters. (I am not actually positive they were shrimp larvae, but for my own sake I'm going to just believe that is what they were.) Aside from the shrimp larvae, there were small bug looking things that were hiding in the slime of the oyster. I only discovered them, because I was trying to scrape the slime off of an oyster and about 20 of them came scuttling out. It was as though I had poked an ant hill. Needless to say it was absolutely disgusting.
Thursday May 8, 2014
Today I felt really off kilter, because my rhythm was interrupted by AP exams.
I started off my day hungry, because I was too lazy and sleepy to go to breakfast. Looking back, that was a terrible idea because; I had my AP Literature exam that morning. The exam went well enough, but I feel as though I started off well and then went downhill until the end. In any case, it can’t be helped now.
After my exam ended, I still had classes. I think that rule is really unfair. They say that people with afternoon exams do not have to classes because it is hard to transition from their schoolwork to their exam, but I don’t see how it isn’t as hard the other way around. It also means that if you have a morning exam you still have to do all your homework, where as afternoon exams don’t have to do homework and get to sleep in. It’s just one of those things that makes zero sense when you actually think about it. Anyway, after my exam I went to my Biology double block and had my meeting with Mr. Meleo.
My meeting with Mr. Meleo went well. I think he’s really a good sport, since I mostly complain about my problems during this meeting. His major concerns were the same as mine. Basically, keep up with the journals (Sorry.) and keep plugging along, which I am doing.
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| Whisk Magazine |
In the spirit of my last post I have done some research about oysters in haute cuisine. Usually when people eat oysters, they are eaten raw on the half shell. Oyster aficionados agree that oysters should be eaten very simply and alone when raw, that way you get the full taste. (The taste comes from the meat of the oyster and the juice from the shell.) Drizzled lemon is acceptable, but cocktail sauces are to be avoided (unless they are prepared with the oysters in mind and enhance the experience). Aside from being eaten raw, oysters can also be smoked, grilled, cooked, or baked. In each method, the oysters are usually the focus of the dish, with their flavor being the predominant one. In essence, if you are actually going to buy and eat oysters , you want to be able to taste them. Any other ingredients that are eaten with them are secondary and should be chosen to complement the oysters. In addition to the way they are cooked, presentation of oysters is also key. Apparently it is a little known art form.
Tuesday May 6, 2014
Today was a
pretty normal day.
I did water quality in the morning and my results were consistent with what I had expected, so no surprises there. But it did turn out to be pretty eventful. I hadn't been paying attention when I grabbed my water sample, so when I got back to the lab I realized that I had captured a moon jelly. Since I was doing my sample during a short block, I did not have time to dump him back out into the harbor and get a new water sample. Instead I just worked around him, and poured him back into the harbor when I was done. I am not sure what happened to him, but I hope he is still alive and kicking right now, because we really bonded. (Side note: I referred to the moon jelly as he, because I named it David, after Captain Bill. This is partially because Captain Bill is my senior project advisor and partially because the moon jellies carefree attitude reminded me of Cap.)
Aside from my water quality today, I read from my senior project book, Shucked. In it, Erin (our heroine and narrator) had just made the transition from a “boot” to a “suit.” In other words, she has transferred from the manual side of oyster farming at Island Creek Oysters to the business side. One of her first experiences on this new side was to visit Shaw’s Crab House, one of the more prominent raw oyster bars in Chicago. Each year Shaw’s inducts an “oyster loving personality” into their Hall of Fame and celebrates this induction with an oyster reception and dinner. The affair, as described by Erin, seems to be a very formal event.
The section made me laugh, because I had all but forgotten that oysters are in fact a luxury food item. All this time I have been worry about the cost of oysters, getting slimy dealing with them, and reading about the tremendous effort that goes into growing them, but I really hadn’t considered the main perk of oyster farming: the oysters themselves. I hadn’t really considered them at all until I read, but I came to realize that I have no idea what oysters taste like. Of course that seems ridiculous, because I am basing my entire project upon them, but oh well. I guess that just means I will just have to go out and try them.
I did water quality in the morning and my results were consistent with what I had expected, so no surprises there. But it did turn out to be pretty eventful. I hadn't been paying attention when I grabbed my water sample, so when I got back to the lab I realized that I had captured a moon jelly. Since I was doing my sample during a short block, I did not have time to dump him back out into the harbor and get a new water sample. Instead I just worked around him, and poured him back into the harbor when I was done. I am not sure what happened to him, but I hope he is still alive and kicking right now, because we really bonded. (Side note: I referred to the moon jelly as he, because I named it David, after Captain Bill. This is partially because Captain Bill is my senior project advisor and partially because the moon jellies carefree attitude reminded me of Cap.)
Aside from my water quality today, I read from my senior project book, Shucked. In it, Erin (our heroine and narrator) had just made the transition from a “boot” to a “suit.” In other words, she has transferred from the manual side of oyster farming at Island Creek Oysters to the business side. One of her first experiences on this new side was to visit Shaw’s Crab House, one of the more prominent raw oyster bars in Chicago. Each year Shaw’s inducts an “oyster loving personality” into their Hall of Fame and celebrates this induction with an oyster reception and dinner. The affair, as described by Erin, seems to be a very formal event.
The section made me laugh, because I had all but forgotten that oysters are in fact a luxury food item. All this time I have been worry about the cost of oysters, getting slimy dealing with them, and reading about the tremendous effort that goes into growing them, but I really hadn’t considered the main perk of oyster farming: the oysters themselves. I hadn’t really considered them at all until I read, but I came to realize that I have no idea what oysters taste like. Of course that seems ridiculous, because I am basing my entire project upon them, but oh well. I guess that just means I will just have to go out and try them.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Monday May 5, 2014
Today I was freaking out about my project. I think it finally sunk in that there were only two weeks left in my project, so I was really starting to worry. My biggest anxieties were my budget and my business plan. Although the incident with the lost data from last week was extremely upsetting, I had seen an upward trend in growth that correlated with the trends in my daily water quality samples. ( I am hoping to talk about these trends soon. Perhaps next week in conclusion to my project.)
My worries concerning my budget and projections stem from not knowing how to write a budget or projections, which to me seems like a perfectly legitimate reason to be concerned. Luckily, I have a mom! And even more fortunate, I have a mom who knows exactly how to do both, so after a very long call with her, I was able to set up a time during the weekend (Saturday afternoon), when she could come help me with my budget.
Not only did she set up a time to help me with my budget, she also made some excellent suggestions on how to tackle my business plan. I had been feeling better about the structure and content of a business plan, but I was feeling really overwhelmed by all the information I had accumulated during my senior project. What do I include? What do I ignore? And where should it all go? I had no idea. What my mom suggested is that I take all my blog entries and print them out, so that I can organize my information on notecards. OR if I did not need the visual aid of having them on notecards, I could copy paste my blog posts from blogger to a word document. Although I have yet to act on her suggestions, I have been feeling much better about taking the next steps in writing and organizing my business plan.
So even though I did freak out today, I felt much better by the end, which was mostly die to my mom's help. I think that the main reason I was freaking out so much was that I was overwhelmed by all of my information and all the work I had to complete. However once I had a plan for how to tackle the information and work, I felt much better. I think it is important for me to learn from my mom on how to look for a solution rather than being worried and anxious.
My worries concerning my budget and projections stem from not knowing how to write a budget or projections, which to me seems like a perfectly legitimate reason to be concerned. Luckily, I have a mom! And even more fortunate, I have a mom who knows exactly how to do both, so after a very long call with her, I was able to set up a time during the weekend (Saturday afternoon), when she could come help me with my budget.
Not only did she set up a time to help me with my budget, she also made some excellent suggestions on how to tackle my business plan. I had been feeling better about the structure and content of a business plan, but I was feeling really overwhelmed by all the information I had accumulated during my senior project. What do I include? What do I ignore? And where should it all go? I had no idea. What my mom suggested is that I take all my blog entries and print them out, so that I can organize my information on notecards. OR if I did not need the visual aid of having them on notecards, I could copy paste my blog posts from blogger to a word document. Although I have yet to act on her suggestions, I have been feeling much better about taking the next steps in writing and organizing my business plan.
So even though I did freak out today, I felt much better by the end, which was mostly die to my mom's help. I think that the main reason I was freaking out so much was that I was overwhelmed by all of my information and all the work I had to complete. However once I had a plan for how to tackle the information and work, I felt much better. I think it is important for me to learn from my mom on how to look for a solution rather than being worried and anxious.
Friday May 2, 2014
Today was a good day until it wasn't.
The majority of my day was fine. I did water quality and saw a significant rise in the water temperature which made me really happy. Because warmer water means growth for my oysters.
Later that day I did a weigh and measure of my oysters, with Will helping me. Having help was great, because I had someone to talk to and also because it was much faster. Usually it takes me around two hours to do a weigh and measure, since I have to count them all out, then weigh and measure them and write all the data down at the same time. Since I had help, it took less than an hour, which was really nice, because I had some time left over at the end of the day.
Of course, since I was having a nice day, the universe had to mess it up somehow. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.) So apparently I did not save my data. Either I closed the file without saving, or my computer died, or I accidentally manually deleted my data set, but somehow, it was not there. There are no words to describe my current frustration with myself and technology.
So, there really isn't much that I remember specifically, but there are a few things that I remember remarking upon. The first is that the oysters still had not shown very much growth lengthwise, but had put on some weight. I recall being worried about their lack of growth lengthwise, because oysters must be 3 inches long to sell at market in MA. Even though they were growing a nice belly, judging by their increase in weight (I don't think it was much, maybe half a gram.), which would mean a better quality oyster, I was taking a quality versus quantity sort of approach. My though process was that I needed to strike a balance of having a well rounded oyster and also getting them to market size as soon as possible. The second thing I noticed about the oysters was that they had begun to secrete their solid filled mucous poop. I realize this sounds disgusting, but I was actually quite excited to see it. this means that the oysters are filtering enough water to have waste and be getting rid of that waste pretty frequently. (Although getting covered in "oyster poop" sounds really unappealing, I discovered that it is not so bad, since their poop is essentially just algae and mucus.)
The majority of my day was fine. I did water quality and saw a significant rise in the water temperature which made me really happy. Because warmer water means growth for my oysters.
Later that day I did a weigh and measure of my oysters, with Will helping me. Having help was great, because I had someone to talk to and also because it was much faster. Usually it takes me around two hours to do a weigh and measure, since I have to count them all out, then weigh and measure them and write all the data down at the same time. Since I had help, it took less than an hour, which was really nice, because I had some time left over at the end of the day.
Of course, since I was having a nice day, the universe had to mess it up somehow. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.) So apparently I did not save my data. Either I closed the file without saving, or my computer died, or I accidentally manually deleted my data set, but somehow, it was not there. There are no words to describe my current frustration with myself and technology.
So, there really isn't much that I remember specifically, but there are a few things that I remember remarking upon. The first is that the oysters still had not shown very much growth lengthwise, but had put on some weight. I recall being worried about their lack of growth lengthwise, because oysters must be 3 inches long to sell at market in MA. Even though they were growing a nice belly, judging by their increase in weight (I don't think it was much, maybe half a gram.), which would mean a better quality oyster, I was taking a quality versus quantity sort of approach. My though process was that I needed to strike a balance of having a well rounded oyster and also getting them to market size as soon as possible. The second thing I noticed about the oysters was that they had begun to secrete their solid filled mucous poop. I realize this sounds disgusting, but I was actually quite excited to see it. this means that the oysters are filtering enough water to have waste and be getting rid of that waste pretty frequently. (Although getting covered in "oyster poop" sounds really unappealing, I discovered that it is not so bad, since their poop is essentially just algae and mucus.)
Thursday May 1, 2014
Today I did a lot of reading! (Mostly due to the fact that I was really tired and couldn't summon the energy to do much else.) I also met with Mr. Meleo, which was really nice, because I was able to rant about my life. I always have a lot on my plate during the spring, but for some reason it all came to a head today. Everyone was annoyed and tired, so they kept trying to take it out on everyone else. My worries stemmed from prom, friend, and dance drama, which were also combined with stress from school, AP exams, and senior projects.
Moving on. My reading today was from Shucked. In the sections that I read, Island Creek Oysters set up the upwellers, received their first shipment of seed of the year, and cultured the seed.
The book explained Island Creek Oysters flupsy in great detail. In the year that the book was written, they had 3 flupsys, each containing 8 silos, which equates to 24 silos. (The silos are each 2.5 feet deep and 2 feet wide and long. They weigh about 40 pounds dry and 70 pounds wet.) These 24 silos will hold all the oysters ordered that year. The three flupsys are organized by mesh size: tens, twenties, and thirties.
What interested me most about the seeding process is its labor intensity. The seed are crucial to the next year’s profit, so they are cared for meticulously. They are checked on constantly to ensure that they have an ample supply of water, because if they don’t they can foul themselves to death. (Fouling is when oysters secrete a mucous filled with anything that was in the water that they did not want to eat. Fouling is essentially oyster poop.) The seed must also be sorted every week. Larger seed are sieved out from smaller seed and placed in different silos with a larger mesh size. Sieving is performed by hand and is vital, because larger seed can stunt the growth of the smaller seed by using up the resources. Another part of the seeding process is setting up the nursery, which involves repairing and cleaning the system from last year.
Something I realized during my senior project is that oyster farming is really labor intensive. When I first began, I did not know about all the work that goes into culturing shellfish. I assumed that you just put them all in bags and let them grow by themselves, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Wednesday April 30, 2014
Today I went through and actually fully
read a business plan from finish to start (before I had been skipping through
to parts that I needed or skimming). So the plan that I read is from 2001
and it is titled, "Small-Scale Oyster Farming for Chesapeake Watermen: A
Sustainable Business Marketing Plan." There were some thing that I
liked about it that I want to adapt and convert for my plan, but there were
also some parts that I really didn't like.
In no particular order, here are the
things I didn't like. One of the first things I noticed about this
business plan is that it lacks visual aids (tables, graphs, etc). The
majority of the plan is words, which made it daunting to read. Not only
that, but I found the visuals lacking. The first table breaks down the
start up costs, which is a good place to start. However the detail is
lacking and where there is detail, it seems to be irrelevant. For
example, they have an entire breakdown of the shipping supplies, but don’t even
mention the breakdown of the culture floating system. The next thing I noticed was that the
watermen were planning to sell their oysters via Internet retail and wholesale
websites. After reading the breakdown of
their distribution setup and their plan to sell online, I realized that it did
not sound very feasible, especially since their oysters had no recognition,
since they were just starting. Finally,
I found their financial models really terrible.
It only contains 8 tables that show the revenues and expenses for
certain market prices that oysters fetch and percent mortality. (See example below.) The worst part about it all is that it is
missing a lot of relevant information, such as the labor costs of running the
business, the taxes involved (Social Security, Medicare, etc.), and worker’s
compensation. To me this indicates a
serious lack of proper research and if I were a bank or an investor, I would
think twice before making an offer.
Now here are some things that I did like. I really like that the business in question
had a story behind it. I think that it
gave the business a competitive edge, since it makes them more relatable. Another part I like was the section that
covered the risks associated with the product.
It was nice to have the description, because I haven’t considered this
much and I found it informative. I also
think that it would be really important from the standpoint of a potential
investor. The final part I liked was the
foreign competition. I actually hadn’t
considered this part either, but I discovered that Canada is a pretty large
competitor in the half shell market.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Tuesday April 29, 2014
Today I was tired and stressed out.
I realized that I had like less than two weeks before my AP Exams and I have
reverted back to not understanding physics. I have a lab due tomorrow
that has something to do with the mathematics of sound wavelengths in
music. I am supposed to find a pattern in it, but honestly I see no
pattern whatsoever, so I'll just have to deal with that tomorrow.
Given that I was not feeling so hot
today, I decided that I would do some reading in my senior project book,
Shucked. (I have three senior project books; Managerial Accounting,
Shucked, and Big Oyster. I do most of my reading from Shucked and
Managerial, because Big Oyster is proving very boring.) In the section
that I read, the book talked about how Island Creek Oyster Farm was founded and
about a marketing trip the crew went on in Martha's Vineyard.
Island Creek Oyster Farm was created by a
man named Skip. He was raised in Duxbury and his father was a lobster
fisherman. After going to Merrimack College for a finance degree, Skip
returned and became commercial fisherman for lobster, steamers, and razor
clams. Skip had heard about aquaculture on the Cape and decided to
culture clams in Duxbury. Using money from fishing on the side and
capturing horseshoe crabs for medical research, he was able to start his clam
farm. Unfortunately after three years, QPX wiped out his entire
crop. Since he had already sunk his money into the equipment, he decided
that his best option was to culture a different type of shellfish. Of
course, he decided on oysters and after many hours of work, Island Creek
Oysters became a well known and respected brand.
What really interests me about Skip's
story is his pro-activeness. From the very start, Skip has been very
active in improving and promoting Island Creek Oysters. When it was first
beginning, he made hundreds of cold calls to restaurants and fish markets
trying to get his oysters some recognition, which eventually led to his oysters
being featured at Grand Central Oyster Bar.
This leads me to the second topic that I
want to discuss; marketing. A lot of the recognition that Island Creek
Oysters have comes from really good marketing. The book discusses one of
the farms marketing forays to Martha's Vineyard. The entire crew went for
the weekend to attend a wine tasting event. They set up their oyster bar
at the event and shucked oysters for the attending crowd. This is one
really good way of marketing, because it ensures that the farm is getting a lot
of exposure. However, it is important to mention is that these oysters
were free. From each seed stock you receive, around 30% will die and
about 10% will go towards free samples. These samples are meant for
restaurants and marketing events to promote the brand. Although it will cost you 10% of your projected profit, it is vital for increasing sales and making sure your oysters become a house brand.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Monday April 28, 2014
This
weekend was really busy, but now I feel much more relaxed and ready for the
week to start. The highlights of my weekend were my one year anniversary
with Will and my first ever dance competition, where we came away with two high
gold medals. All in all, it was a really nice weekend.
The
best part about my weekend was finally getting some actual figures!
Captain Bill gave me the invoice from his order for Tabor's oyster farm, so I
have been playing with the numbers a little. Despite having the majority
of the equipment come from Ketcham Traps, there were a few things that I still
had to research, like ropes, chains, and buoys. I mostly used West
Marine, Lowes, and Home Depot, and Ace Hardware as my sources for prices.
It was fun looking at all the different options I had, but it was also pretty
overwhelming since I didn't really know about what I was looking for.
(Honestly who knew there were so many options for different types of
rope!) For example, I was trying to figure out what sized buoy I needed
to mark the four corners of my grant. I knew I wanted buoys that would
not be obnoxiously large or too small to see. It took me a while, because
I am really terrible at spatial relations and couldn't for the life of me
figure out how large they were, but I finally settled on a 14.5" diameter
buoy.
So
this is what I was working on over the weekend. It's a basic cost
comparison of the two floating systems I was considering. This cost
comparison only includes the start-up equipment that I will need for my first
year. It does not account for any expansion in the next year,
depreciation of products, inflation, or cost of running. As you can see
the floating mesh bag system is about 5,000 dollars cheaper, which is not that
much of a difference. Since there is not enough difference for on system
to be ruled out as too exorbitant, I will have to take other factors into
account.
So, a Floating Cage System will last longer and depreciate slower then a Floating Mesh Bag System. (Cages usually last 15-20 years. Mesh bags last about 10 years. However cages are much more expensive.) Mesh bags are more easily accessed, which means more efficiency and less man power, which would be important especially towards the beginning of the business.
Based on this information, I have decided that my farm will be using a Floating Mesh Bag System. Which I can use the $49, 218.00 figure in my calculations for my start-up costs.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Saturday April 26, 2014
Today I did some catching up in the
morning, so I decided I ought to write about it. I actually accomplished
a lot. I was mostly doing research for my market analysis, specifically
for my target market. It was a really hard slog through the Internet.
However, since I had all morning to do it rather than a free block, I think I
managed to get places.
The reason that the research was so
difficult is that there different regions of the United States that culture oyster;
Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Gulf, and West Coast. The majority of the
information on the Internet is about the Mid-Atlantic and the Gulf. The
Mid-Atlantic is an area that used to be very plentiful in oysters and shellfish
until their fishery began a slow decline after 1980. Since the early
2000s, there has been a huge initiative in the area to grow the fishery
again. Because of this, there are a lot of studies and industry reports
for that area. In the Gulf, the majority of the oysters go to the shucked
market, which has much clearer records than that of the half shell
market. The West Coast has not been an issue yet in my research, since
culture there is still relatively new.
So, now we can get back to the
Northeast. As I said, there really isn’t
that much information out there. However
after many hours of wandering through the Internet, I was able to discover some
things. The Northeast accounts for about
25% of the oysters harvested in the United States. (The Gulf and Mid-Atlantic accounting for
almost all of the rest.) Of this 25%,
most are sold in restaurants and fish markets in the Northeast. This is because of two factors. The first is that people are more likely to
buy fresh seafood, so a lot of seafood is sold relatively closely to where it
was harvested. The second is that
Northeastern oysters have a nice briney taste.
(Gulf oysters tend to be bland and Chesapeake oysters tend to be a
little silty.) Northeastern oysters
therefore are dominant in the quality half shell market. Despite this apparent setback in entering the
market, the taste of oysters varies a great deal due to the conditions in which
they were grown, so while competition is a factor, it will not make or break a
business.
I’ve actually been surfing through quite
a few food taster blogs to see what they look for in an oyster. I was really glad to see that oysters vary so
much in taste (according to the experts), because it gives more of an
opportunity to make a name for yourself in the business. According to all the experts, the Taj Mahal
of oyster bars is the Grand Central Oyster Bar.
If you are an oyster farmer that is the one restaurant at which you
want your oysters featured.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Friday April 25, 2014
This is the third time I have done a weigh and measure. From the data you can see that the oysters have not grown in terms of length, however I believe that they have increased in weight, by about 0.5 grams on average. I was glad to see that they had grown more of a belly, however, they also need to get longer if I am planing on selling them to market during the summer season. I think for the next week I will stop shaking them, so that they will be encouraged to grow lengthwise as well as depth-wise.
This week I have been considering the current location of my oysters (at the Tabor Boy dock). A stretch of water that has direct sunlight for photosynthesis and a place with good circulation, so they have a lot to eat, are important conditions to look for. However, there are other considerations that farmers must take into account.
For example, I worry that the little to no increase in length that I have seen may be due to a lack of calcium in the water. It is important that the oysters have a nice belly, so that they are more aesthetically pleasing and more marketable, but it is also important that they are able to grow to a certain length (3 inches market size) within a reasonable amount of time. (It’s essentially a better quality or quicker turnover sort of issue.) Or, since I get such high absorbance readings when the wind comes up, is the silt that is being churned making the oysters silty and/or sandy (this would affect the quality of the oyster and thereby affect it's desirability). The salinity is also quite high in this area (26-30ppt range). This will affect the "briney" taste of the oysters.
Honestly there is so much more to consider than I ever though at the beginning of this project. I have been working slowly on writing my business plan, by reading samples to see what I should be researching and including. Today I discovered a whole other section that has to do with how the company will be organized (sole proprietor, partnerships, etc.), which I have no idea about. It sort of boggles my mind to think about it all.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Water Quality 04/28/14
After the nice weather this weekend, the cell
density has risen significantly. Which
makes me really happy because the oysters need algae to grow. Aside from the increased growth in the
harbor, there is not much of note in this water quality.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Thursday April 24, 2014
Today I began researching for the next section of my business model, the market analysis. The first part of the market analysis is a discussion of the industry and its outlook. This is what SBA.gov said I should include:
It took me a while to find the right sources of information. I often found myself looking at aquaculture surveys for the Chesapeake and Gulf regions, but not Northeastern. Finally I resorted back to NOAA, which I have decided is my best source of information.
The aquaculture industry can be viewed from a variety of levels, but the first is world wide. From a global standpoint aquaculture is very important. Of all the seafood consumed, approximately 50% of it comes from aquaculture. The amount of fish that is actually cultured versus wild surprised me. I hadn't expected it to be that large, but once you consider how much fish is consumed per capita and how much there is in the ocean, the number makes more sense. The second level is by country. Asia accounts for about 88% of cultured seafood and the United States for 0.8%. Although compared to many Asian countries, the American aquaculture industry seems very poor, it has actually been increasing for the past 20 years.
The second level is by region. In the United States, oysters are grown in the northeast, mid/southeast, gulf, and only occasionally on the west coast. The table below shows what percentages go to each of the two markets by region.
Using this information and a few other sources I was able to parse out the information I though I needed and create the industry description and outlook. I am not entirely convinced that it is right and will be sending it to my grandfather and mother for their opinions. Despite it being not very good I though I should share it. It reads as follows:
Industry Description and Outlook – Describe your industry, including its current
size and historic growth rate as well as other trends and characteristics
(e.g., life cycle stage, projected growth rate). Next, list the major customer
groups within your industry.
The aquaculture industry can be viewed from a variety of levels, but the first is world wide. From a global standpoint aquaculture is very important. Of all the seafood consumed, approximately 50% of it comes from aquaculture. The amount of fish that is actually cultured versus wild surprised me. I hadn't expected it to be that large, but once you consider how much fish is consumed per capita and how much there is in the ocean, the number makes more sense. The second level is by country. Asia accounts for about 88% of cultured seafood and the United States for 0.8%. Although compared to many Asian countries, the American aquaculture industry seems very poor, it has actually been increasing for the past 20 years.
 |
| NOAA Statistic |
Using this information and a few other sources I was able to parse out the information I though I needed and create the industry description and outlook. I am not entirely convinced that it is right and will be sending it to my grandfather and mother for their opinions. Despite it being not very good I though I should share it. It reads as follows:
According to a 2011 NOAA
survey, the worldwide aquaculture industry supplies about 50% of the seafood
eaten, about 0.8% of which comes from the United States. Global aquaculture is valued at $120 billion,
while United States aquaculture was only valued at $1.1 billion. The same survey reported that in 2011 the
United States imported around $17 billion worth of seafood and only exported
about $5.8 billion worth; this is an $11.2 billon deficit. Because of this deficit, the industry is
becoming a popular option. Aquaculture
has been trending up in the United States for the past 20 years; going from being
valued at $0.5 billion in the early 80s to $1.1 billion in 2011.
In the Unites States,
oysters are acquired via fishing or culture.
Cultured oysters are grown for two markets, the half shell market and
the shucked market. Oysters are cultured
in the northeast, mid-atlantic, gulf, and occasionally on the west coast. In the northeast, 90% of oysters are grown
for the half shell market and 20% for the shucked market.
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