Thames River seed oysters are harvested in conjunction with Norm Bloom and Son and are transplanted to grounds at the mouth of the Mystic River, off of Ram Island. In 2014, Jim's dream of a productive Thames was realized. Unfortunately, an injury and attention needed elsewhere put the Thames on the back-burner. Lpez credited Debbie Hamrick, director of specialty crops for the state Farm Bureau Federation and an advisory board member for Sea Grant, with helping to initiate the collaborative demonstration project. Most of the industry in the river had either seized or had regulations implemented for environmental purposes. The spat grow into adult oysters in this natural setting, and can form dense oyster beds over time.

In the mid-2000's, Jim decided to attempt a Thames river oyster revival by planting seed oysters where they once grew. The other method is by attaching the Spat traps to a Horizontal Line / Back bone with floats so the spat traps hang down vertical in the first 1m of the water. We can keep oysters in tanks with water flowing continuously through them because this allows them to grow faster because they are fed more food. Unfortunately, the wild reserves were depleted and died off in the 1970's due to increase of industry in the river and lack of understanding of the industry on 'spat' or larvae oysters (the point before an oyster finds a suitable surface to grow upon and doesn't have the protection of a shell.) It can be as small as a grain of sand at times. The Thames was a highly productive oyster source since the early 1800's. The Ram Island oysters are actually wild oysters that originally set upon the banks and flats of the Thames River.

Spat oysters