BCBusiness
At Fanny Bay Oysters, Malindi Taylor leads a team that’s transforming oyster aquaculture through innovation, sustainability and female leadership in B.C.’s shellfish industry.
At Fanny Bay Oysters farm on Baynes Sound, Malindi Taylor is on multitask mode. She handles orders, checks the hatchery and greets each worker by name, all while giving a tour of the oysters farming process. “I’ve been working with oysters since I was little,” she shares, demonstrating that her leadership is rooted in her experience that go beyond a desk.
Taylor is a fifth-generation shells fish farmer. She started out with the basics, like shucking oysters and digging for clams and worked her way up. “We have about 27 tenures on the ocean in Baynes Sound and Desolation Sound.” She clarifies. Today, the company operates with a crew of around 130 employees across B.C., covering everything from hatchery work and farm operations to oyster bar sales, seafood counters, and international shipping. While Taylor doesn’t directly manage the hatcheries, she stays in close contact with the farm managers to ensure the product is ready to head to the market.
After moving from Washington State, Taylor’s group encountered stricter seafood regulations in Canada. This prompted them to develop a wet storage system in B.C.—a model they later adopted in the U.S.
The team employs floating bag culture, a method adapted from Desolation Sound’s deep marine environment to grow a unique oyster known as the Sunseeker. Taylor describes the Sunseeker as a hardy oyster, ideal for international shipping. With over 32,000 floating bags in use, the system ensures product consistency, improves working conditions and enhances oyster quality.
Fanny Bay specializes in Pacific oysters and Manila clams, and is also licensed to grow Kumamotos and mussels. Despite past challenges with hatchery supply and space, expanding into those species remains part of their future plans.
Taylor, one of five women on the twelve-member executive team, emphasizes the importance of female leadership in aquaculture. She highlights Stacie Fawcett in Desolation Sound and Shannon Munro at the processing plant as key decision-makers who play crucial roles in operations.
“Until I left university, I was like, I can do anything. And then all of a sudden you enter the professional world and you’re like, OK, I’m being taken down a peg for being a woman,” Taylor says. But she recognizes that her assertiveness has push her forward: “I’ve always been very forward-moving and been like, nope, that’s not going to stop me.” Clearly, it hasn’t. If anything, it’s inspired her to lift others up with her.
In 2020, Taylor teamed up with her cousin Jada to start Girls That Shuck—a networking initiative they put together after doing Zoom chats with women in the seafood biz. They now have over 1,600 Instagram followers and have shared 15 interviews featuring women from diverse fields of expertise— with many more planned for the future.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Oyster Gals (@girlsthatshuck)
A post shared by Oyster Gals (@girlsthatshuck)
Since its launch, the initiative has raised $8,000 through limited-edition merchandise sales, supporting organizations such as Flavours of Hope, Minorities in Aquaculture, the Battered Women’s Support Society and Mother Nation. A new merchandise drop is expected before August 2025, with proceeds continuing to fund mentorship and skills-building programs through WORTH Association’s Yes Shef initiative.
That same spirit of social responsibility extends to Fanny Bay Oysters’ environmental practices. Its hatchery practices have dramatically increased larval survival rates—from just 0.0001% in the wild to 20–30%. Over the past six years, they’ve also developed a side business that repurposes discarded shells, which are crushed and sold for uses ranging from chicken feed to landscaping and sustainable cement mixtures. “We take it as the requests come,” she says of the shell recycling program, which could eventually become a standalone brand. Fanny Bay Oysters is certified by Ocean Wise, and its parent company, Taylor Shellfish, held ASC certification until 2020.
The organization also emphasizes sustainable gear use to reduce marine debris and conducts annual underwater monitoring to help maintain a healthy seafloor. “They add critical infrastructure, allowing for biodiversity to flourish,” says Malindi. To further support marine ecosystems, the company partners with SeaForest in Port Hardy, supplying fresh, pickled and dried kelp to its retail and restaurant partners. It’s also piloting kelp forest restoration projects on its leases in collaboration with Ocean Wise.
Fanny Bay Oysters’ environmental work doesn’t happen in isolation—it’s deeply tied to the lands and waters where they operate. The company is situated on the leased territories of the K’ómoks, Qualicum, Tla’amin and Klahoose First Nations. “We are on their lands, so we need to follow their vision for the future of natural resources in this region,” says Taylor. Their operations are governed by a range of approvals including aquaculture licenses, farm management plans, CFIA permits and international export licenses. Food safety inspections—conducted by agencies such as DFO, CFIA, Transport Canada, the BC CDC and Environment Canada—cover everything from algae and E. coli to rainfall and overall water quality.
While grounded in local stewardship and strict regulation, Fanny Bay also has its sights set on global growth. The farm’s revenue streams are well diversified: one-third comes from domestic sales, another from Asian markets and the final third from the U.S., with occasional clam shipments to the EU. Annual production includes 10,000 gallons of shucked oyster meat and 250,000 pounds of Manila clams. Taylor sees promising signs ahead: “We are seeing [exports] trend upwards now,” she says, despite challenges navigating tariffs and political shifts. Each year, Fanny Bay Oysters ships around 400,000 dozen oysters from its B.C. farms.
Even as the largest shellfish operator in the province, Taylor promotes collaboration. Fanny Bay Oysters is a member of the BC Shellfish Growers Association, working with nearly 200 growers who share both regulatory burdens and environmental concerns. “We all go through the same regulatory issues. We all go through the same environmental issues,” Taylor says. “So it only makes sense to be there to support each other.”
Taylor sees the future in mechanized floating-bag farms, greater access to EU clam markets and stronger retail outlets like the Fanny Bay Oysters Seafood Shop in Courtenay and the Vancouver-based oyster bar. She’s working to improve mussel production and stabilize wages with improved tools and technology.
Malindi Taylor isn’t just running a business—she’s redefining the business model. Backed by decades of experience and a deep commitment to community, she approaches every aspect of the industry with drive and genuine respect for her team. Her focus is on building a business that’s not only profitable but built to last. In an era where sustainability and ethics are essential, Malindi stands out as a leader reshaping what success looks like in aquaculture—proving it can be both a good business and a force for good.