At the Atlantic Capes Fisheries oyster beds, Heladio Martinez , Jacobo Perez, and Moises Morales sort through freshly harvested Cape May Salts.. But after more than 25 years of leading the state’s fledgling farmed oyster industry, Atlantic Capes quietly left the business in February, licensing the Cape May Salt brand to the farm’s former general manager, Brian Harman, and his new venture, Cape Harbor Shellfish.
It was not, however, for the lack of trying. In 2020, it attempted to industrialize labor-intensive oyster farming with a massive deepwater farm in the Delaware Bay, two miles off the coast from Fortescue. Success would have been a boon to an industry that’s limited by New Jersey’s pricey real estate and the lack of working waterfront compared to New England and Virginia.
The following month, Atlantic Capes exited oyster harvesting altogether, and handed the Cape May Salt over to Harman.