Harvesting of Pacific oysters for the domestic market begins in October or November, but most of the oysters from hanging culture are harvested from December to May as shown in Table 5-1.
Oysters from long-lines are harvested by raising them up with a winch. Hanging rens are 9 m long (Figure 7-1). Since cultches are threaded through by a galvanized wire, a cut at the end of the hanging string could cause the oysters on cultch to slip off the wire.
Figure 7-1. Harvesting of oyster by crane.
Harvested oysters are passed through a washer. Because the hanging strings in a long-line are placed at a relatively narrow interval between ropes, a small harvesting boat which can pass through the narrow spaces is used. Yield depends on harvesting period and on the condition of oyster ground, but in the raft method meat weight per hanging string of 9 m is generally 7 to 11 kg (Figure 7-2).
Figure 7-2. Yield of oysters from a 3m-long ren.
