The drone lifted off the boat and soared over the waters of East Galveston Bay. Tiny specks fell away as it flew, as if the drone were shedding sand, or perhaps bits of gravel.
Or baby oysters, just three months old, with shells so soft they could crunch underfoot and so small that four could nestle together on the face of a quarter.
Justin Woody, the vice president of Anahuac-based oyster wholesaler Jeri’s Seafood, wanted to test if these young oysters — also called seed — could help revitalize part of the oyster reef that he leases and harvests. So he teamed up with a hatchery and an agricultural drone operator to spread the seed across five acres of water last Friday…