News from Pearls Fiji

[jshepherd]

I just got an email from Justin Hunter this morning. It seems things hvae been a bit rough out there lately.

We have really had a pretty tough go the last several months, we had a hurricane come through (Tomas) that really created a major mess for us. It basically went right over the top of our Kioa farm (Category 4 / 5 with winds gusting to 200 + Kmp). No one got hurt or injured but we lost a lot of oysters, very high %. We also lost over 100 spat collector lines, with seed on it for the next couple years! Not to mention we lost sheds, boats etc, but the real pain was the oysters, we can always rebuild but getting these Fiji oysters is not so easy.

Our hatchery also took a major hit, but is about to get fired up again. We have a container of collector material coming in from China as we speak, still going to leave us very lean over the next couple years, till we build stocks back up.

 

[GemGeek]

Justin is a scrapper. I have no doubt he'll be on top of things sooner than he thinks, but to get clobbered after all his hard work, is so unfair.

 

[Caitlin]

I feel for Justin. He's going to cowboy up and ride this rough spot through to success.

 

[pattye]

That certainly isn't what we want to hear--glad no human injuries, but sad to hear of Justin's setback------

 

[lisa c]

Ditto Pattye, and

Does losing spat collector lines mean the whole thing floats off way out to sea and sinks, or that the spat gets torn from the lines or what? does anyone go out and perform search and salvage, or should I ask instead how far out from around his lagoon does the search and salvage area extend?

I guess we all wish we had a magic wand, and could help. My respect to you Justin, for focusing on the positives that still exist.