Dredgin'

These men are using a mechanical dredge to catch oysters off the river bottom. Several days ago I posted a picture of oystermen catching oysters using hand tongs and nippers. They oyster in the creeks in shallow water where you see each shell you pick up. Here the water is much deeper and you run in circles with a type of rake that picks up everything. The rake or dredge is brought on board and dumped then the catch is culled by hand and only the legal size oysters are kept everything else goes back over the side.