Jeff Spahr

Events

Cayman Islands Department of Tourism Presents Bubbles + Bites
Business:localoysters.com
Website: www.localoysters.com

Jeff Spahr is a commercial oysterman who supplies only local oysters to local restaurants and residents.  Jeff is a Charleston native who grew up on the water and graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in Business Administration.  He has several leased areas from the Department of Natural Resources where he constantly plants, grooms, and harvests his oysters; his operation is a sustainable method of fishing.  Every year Jeff plants over 1500 bushels of live oysters and indigineous oyster shell.  These oysters and shell play a dual role in the sustainability of his practices; the live oysters spawn and produce oyster spat, fertilized eggs, and the shells provide a habitat for the spat to settle and grow to market size.  Each year he has been harvesting less than he has been planting, and the oyster population on his leases is more than sustainable…it’s growing; the goal is plant more than he harvests and to have a robust crop of oysters to choose from when harvesting.

Jeff also has created a niche market of local, single oysters for restaurants in the Charleston area.  The supply is very limited in these early stages of developing a single oyster crop, and his first and foremost buyer is Fleet Landing Restaurant.  Other restaurants that offer local single oysters to their customers from Jeff are Highway 17 North Roadside Kitchen, Boathouse Restaurant on Isle of Palms, Abe’s Oyster Bar, Pearlz downtown and West Ashley, and Liberty Tap Room in Mt Pleasant.  These restaurants also purchase shrimp caught near Mcclellanville that Jeff delivers straight from the boats to the restaurants.

All of these products can be ordered for delivery to the residents in the Lowcountry by going to http://www.LocalOysters.com or calling Jeff Spahr at 843-568-6380. Jeff has been a commercial fisherman since 1988 and has been delivering bushels of oysters to local residents for their oyster roasts for almost a decade.
Jeff Spahr has been featured in the Post and Courier, Charleston Magazine, WCIV News 4, and in a documentary filmed by George Motz and presented at the New York City Food and Film Festival.