ABOUT US
The Farmer & Farm
The Farmer
A first-generation shellfish farmer, Jack Eynon founded Big Cypress Mariculture in 2023 while working as a research technician at UNC-Wilmington’s Shellfish Research Hatchery. Growing up in Southwest Florida, he learned to love harvesting (and sharing!) his own seafood, whether by kayak fishing in the Everglades, diving for scallops, or spearfishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Winding through different coastal jobs – a fishery observer on Louisiana tuna boats, an economist with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries – and a master’s in Environmental Management from Duke, he couldn’t shake the idea of farming oysters. Now that he’s found his community of oyster growers and seafood lovers, he can’t imagine doing anything else.
The Farm
Our operations are situated on two farm sites.
Alligator Bay, located in North Carolina's renowned Stump Sound, produces a rich, mushroomy, medium-brine oyster. For a sweet, nutty flavor, try our New River variety.
Alligator Bay, Stump Sound, NC
Alligator Bay Settled along the saltmarsh, the farm gets an influx of fresh, briny seawater from the New River Inlet, located about 4 miles northeast. In the late summer and fall, the farm is teeming with brown and white shrimp, and skimmer trawls hum up and down the intracoastal waterway adjacent the bay. In the late winter, blooms of haslea ostrearia, a blue-hued algae, produce a fleeting supply of coveted green-gill oysters. The water quality, minerals, and algae that bloom in Alligator Bay contribute to a rich, high salt taste profile that varies by season. Stump Sound oysters are well-known for a reason - taste ours to see why.
Sneads Creek, New River, NC
The farm at Sneads Creek is tucked away in a deep, protected cove of the lower New River. The site's geography is unique for coastal NC – the tidal creek is fringed by steep embankments and hardwoods that venture right down to the waterline. Sweet water from a small, marshy tributary mingles with the tidal-driven waters of the Atlantic. Oysters grown here possess a nutty complexity and clean, round finish to follow an initial briny wash.