“I had the opportunity to work out on oyster farms using those methods a few times when we were also testing this new gear and you can just tell that the workers are constantly working on the farm,” said Roros. “It's very hard work, backbreaking labor, and so we were out there to try to test this new tumble cage aquaculture to reduce labor for them but also try to create good marketable oysters.” 

For the project, the researchers at the Alaska Science Fisheries Center worked with three local growers, testing the different ways of growing oysters to ultimately conduct a side-by-side comparison of the different growing methods. 

Roros said this latest tumble cage process involved her and her fellow researchers setting oyster cages in an intertidal area near the beach. Alaska has a large tidal range, and because the cages move naturally with the tides, the cages had air exposure at low tide, and during the mid and high tides, they were fully submerged in water.

“What that does is it naturally tumbles the oysters inside the cages,” said Roros. “There's a part of the current process of oyster farming—such as floating bag and stack method farming—where part of that is they have to pull all of the bags out of the water and take all of the oysters and put them through what's called a mechanical tumbler which rounds the shell and sorts by size.” 

Naturally tumbling the oysters in cages with the tides is supposed to round the shells to the point where that mechanical process isn't needed, which is a big help when it comes to labor. It also helps in terms of the marketability of the oyster. 

In Alaska, one of the main things about the half shell market is the quality and appearance of the oyster. 

“What they really want are oysters with nice, rounded shells and a deep cup with heavy meat content. That's what's desirable,” said Roros. 

The natural tumble cage culture also helps with what is known as biofouling, the fouling of cages by organisms like muscles and barnacles. When the cages are exposed to the air at low tide, it provides a drying period, which helps prevent those organisms from settling on the cage. 

“That’s also helps with labor because when they're using the floating bags and stacks they have to wipe off a lot of the biofouling or power wash the biofouling off,” said Roros. “The main takeaway is that for tumble cage culture, it's moving with the tides, so it's supposed to naturally tumble the oysters, round their shell and then also help to prevent full biofouling on the cages. All in all, that is supposed to reduce some of the labor and grow great, marketable oysters.” 

Roros said that in addition to her experience with oyster aquaculture in Alaska, she was also able to participate in research involving a salmon hatchery at the Little Port Walter Research Station, which was established in 1934 and is the oldest year-round biological field station in Alaska. In addition to working with salmon, Roros said it was great to have experience working at a remote field station. 

“It's fully remote, so we could only get there either through a boat ride or a seaplane. It was fun to go on a seaplane and land on the water,” said Roros. 

With a career in fisheries science as her goal, Roros said being able to work with different salmon species was an incredible experience. She did everything from genetics research to processing the salmon, taking length and weight measurements, and removing tiny, coated wire tags, which are smaller than a grain of rice, to help the researchers understand stock assessment survival rates. 

“That was also a phenomenal experience, and it was a beautiful, fully remote place,” said Roros. “That was one of the highlights of my internship, getting to work with salmon and experience what a remote field research lab feels like.”