“Tide’s going this way” he says as he motions across the wind in the direction of the water rushing out towards the mouth of the creek. It gives the crew an idea of which way to sow the clams in beds just off the shoreline. 

Farmer Eddie Watts has been a waterman “all his life” and worked for Cherrystone Aqua-Farms for 40(ish) years.  

Suddenly he is up to his neck in brackish water, securing the covering to the clam bed. He and his crew are harvesting, transporting, and replanting clam seed today. 

Born on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, he moved away for a while, went to high school across the bay in Yorktown, VA, worked on an offshore scallop dredge boat, then settled back here. 

If you ask him what he’s most proud of in his professional career, he’ll probably mention something relating to his time as a film star: he participated in a virtual field trip for Kiptopeke Elementary School during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (do yourself a favor and search “Kippers Harvest Clams” on YouTube).

In no time he and his team dig just under 600,000 clams they planted last fall and overwintered in preparation for today’s move to beds where they’ll reach market size. 

It’s a wonder to watch him work, mentoring the next generation of shellfish farmers by laboring alongside them. He slings empty baskets, then full ones; stacks them, counts, replants, covers, crawls beds to check for holes.  He laughs with them, gives them a hard time, shares inside jokes and water. He’s raised many a clam, and many a fine waterman, too.

“This area has an incredible survival rate. The clams just like it here.” He pauses. “And so do I.”