Heroes on the half shell: New Haven filmmaker at work on oystering documentary
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New Haven filmmaker Steve HammPhoto by Dan Hamm / Contributed
As someone with a strong interest in environmentalism, Steve Hamm is fascinated by oysters and the whole business of oystering.
Hamm, 69, of New Haven, is a documentary filmmaker who first became drawn to Connecticut’s oystering industry while making a film about Connecticut’s Mill River. During that project, Hamm interviewed Norwalk-based oyster farmer Norm Bloom and watched crews at work.
“It was just fascinating,” Hamm said. “I loved the sea and I loved the ships.”
He also loved the role that oysters play in preserving the environmental health of the water they live in. The bivalves effectively filter the water, consuming algae, and removing excess nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
anthony: really? paul: but now people embrace it. people like to be thought of as living off the land. they have bumper stickers now, you know, piney power. anthony: how do you make your living? paul: it s good to farm blueberries and cranberries. it s a lot of fishing, a lot of clamming, hopefully the oystering is coming back in the delaware bay. the bay supported a lot of jobs. anthony: the pine barrens have been settled for a long time. paul: a long time. some of the first people who came here were the glassmakers. saw this incredible sand that we have out here called sugar sand. pure white and it s perfect for making glass to the point that it didn t have to be washed or processed in any other way. there was hundreds of glassworks, they re just ruins now. thank you. anthony: thank you. so it s not like the rest of jersey, here? paul: oh no. and i hope it stays like it. it s like a jersey unto itself. out here, like you saw, kind of a long drive to get anywhere.
there was a time years ago that if you would ve called somebody like that a piney, you d have got shot. anthony: really? paul: but now people embrace it. people like to be thought of as living off the land. they have bumper stickers now, you know, piney power. anthony: how do you make your living? paul: it s good to farm blueberries and cranberries. it s a lot of fishing, a lot of clamming, hopefully the oystering is coming back in the delaware bay. the bay supported a lot of jobs. anthony: the pine barrens have been settled for a long time. paul: a long time. some of the first people who came here were the glassmakers. saw this incredible sand that we have out here called sugar sand. pure white and it s perfect for making glass to the point that it didn t have to be washed or processed in any other way. there was hundreds of glassworks, they re just ruins now. thank you. anthony: thank you. so it s not like the rest of jersey here? paul: oh no. and i hope it stays li
so, you re right. it is a very rural district and a lot of these communities are at the end of the road. they re not necessarily sea side type resorts. right. a lot of people who make their living fishing and oystering. they re a little more remote, hard to pry out of their homes when the weather hits. so what do you do about that? well, we have we ve actually developed over the last few years a much more active preparation for storms, much more robust response right after the storm. so we ll swarm in there with all the normal utility trucks and everything you can imagine down there. first responders, to try to help everybody who is still there. but we really like it when people get out of the way of the storm ahead of time, especially with the kind of surge we re looking at here. this is a surge that s probably higher than anybody has seen in their lifetime in the panhandle. what do you know about how people have responded to the call in the areas that are mandatory evac
fishing and oystering. they are a little hardtory pry out of their homes when the weather hits. what do you do about that? well, we ve developed over the last few years a much more active preparation for storms, much more robust response right after the storm. we ll swarm with all the you till trucks and everything you could imagine, first responders to try to help everybody who is still there. this is a surge probably higher than anybody has ever seen in the panhandle. what do you know about how people have responded to the call in the areas mandatory evacuation? are they listening? not as well as we would like. that s why i appreciate you doing this. i think there s still room for people to get out of harm s way. we wish they would because it s a lot easier to take care of