MBP has created a unique seawater filtration system for oyster cultivation. MBP oysters are grown in 1-µm filtered seawater
to avoid contamination from harmful microorganisms and parasites, such as Haplosporidian costale (SSO). Seawater is first
pumped from Yaquina Bay at high tide and stored in a 3 million liter reservoir. Seawater is then pumped from the reservoir through two
large sand filters (filtering down to approximately 1 µm) and and through a series of bag filters (filtering down to 10 µm).
In 2007 MBP added additional filtration to remove naturally occurring Vibrio bacteria and associated toxins from the incoming seawater.
This is accomplished by passing the 1 µm filtered seawater through a UV filter into a storage raceway. Once in the raceway, water is cycled
through a protein skimmer and biological filter at a rate of approximately 6 raceway volumes per day. Seawater is then pumped from the storage
raceway directly to larval culture tanks or, after additional UV filtration, to spat culture tanks.
