Parksville resident Michael Thurber has faced The Dragons.
That’s about all he can share at this point.
Thurber took his idea for the development of an oyster business to the CBC-TV show last year, hoping for $450,000 in funding to develop a hatchery and obtain some deep-water licences. He won’t know when his bit will air on the show.
“I can’t tell you if I have a deal or not,” Thurber said last week. “But they (the CBC) has been nice — they sent me T-shirts.”
When we introduced readers to Thurber last year he said he may have the answer to the shellfish industry’s concerns that increased ocean acidity. Thurber’s would like to farm the Olympia oyster, a native species. Shellfish producers on the Island almost exclusively produce the Japanese oyster — introduced more than 100 years ago to these shores — and the Olympia has all but disappeared from local waters.
The Olympia is a smaller oyster than the Japanese variety, and its reproduction cycle happens much slower. But Thurber said the Olympia, as a native species, is better able to handle the waters of the Strait of Georgia.
He believes he made a good impression on The Dragons.
“They dubbed me the oyster whisperer,” he said. “I’m the only guy there is who can sex an oyster without killing it.”
“It was a wonderful experience, I’d recommend it to anyone” Thurber said. “But you (potential Dragon-facers) have to do your homework — I got caught off guard a bit. I’m not a people person. I kind of choked up a bit. I have no experience in public speaking, but I’m getting better at it.”
Thurber said the CBC will let him know 30 days in advance of his appearance on the show.
“They are going to air it at some time, they just don’t know when.”
The shellfish industry is worth $32 million to the B.C. economy and employs 1,000 people — half of them in Baynes Sound just north of Parksville Qualicum Beach.
The B.C. Shellfish Growers’ Association has been trying to convince the federal government to fund research into developing a new variety of oyster than can thrive in the new PH-level reality of the Georgia Strait.
