Oyster hats, dipped in cement to roughen their surfaces, sit in a dinghy at Chipman’s Cove, ready to be set in this corner of Wellfleet Harbor. Like many oyster farmers, Shea Murphy and Lek Saruta, who have a grant on Field Point, stake hats in the cove. They will hammer rebar through each stack of conical disks, securing them to the bottom of the cove, where oyster larvae floating in the water will attach to the hats, becoming spat, or baby oysters. Timing and speed are essential: they have to wait for the tide to be low enough to stake the hats but high enough that they can still get back to shore after securing all the hats. By the end of summer, the hats are covered with the young bivalves, which will be removed to continue growing in oyster bags. Wellfleet Harbor is one of the few places in the world where oyster spat can be caught this way. —Edward Boches
