With oysters it's no boat - no business

The marine manufacturing giant said Roden is owner and managing director of Cleanwater Oysters in St Helens, Tasmania, which handles some 4.5 million oysters a year across four leases in George's Bay.

To manage the workload, Mercury Marine said Cleanwater operates two aluminium punts: The one with the jet engine is called The Hoover while the other, with twin 115hp Mercury OptiMax outboards, is known as The Eggbeater (photos hereabouts).

"This is the second set of Opti's we've had on The Eggbeater and we're really happy with them to be honest," said Roden, who deals with Seaport Marine in Launceston.

Mercury Marine said the 30-foot, prop-driven punt is on the water five days a week, covering the 25km round-trip to the leases two or three times a day, either deploying or retrieving some three tonnes of seed trays, oyster baskets or aquapurses per load.

"The OptiMax engines cover all the bases for us," said Roden.

"They are reliable, but they are also incredibly fuel efficient and have great power. We carry a lot of weight and we need to get up on the plane quickly," he said.

Mercury Marine said that while oysters are seen by most people to be a luxury item, Roden hasn't noticed any slow down in demand due to the global economic downturn yet.

"September to March is the peak season for oysters and the Christmas-New Year period is the busiest of all, with demand outstripping supply, so business has been good - though who knows what might be coming," said Roden.

Whatever the future brings, Mercury Marine said Roden is determined Cleanwater Oysters will be ready for it, and as part of that, he's about to trade in his two OptiMaxs for a new set of Mercury muscle.

"We always trade our engines in before they've done 800 hours and we know with the Opti's we're going to get good resale, especially with so few hours on them," Roden said. "These OptiMaxs deliver in every area."

For more information, visit www.mercurymarine.com.au