Systems and methods for automated maturation of oysters

A method of maturing oysters comprising:

• (A) injecting seed-oysters into a rotatable containment assembly, the containment assembly comprising:
• (1) an outer cylindrical enclosure;
• and
• (2) a spiral construction contained within the outer cylindrical enclosure, the spiral construction made of a perforated sheet with holes having hole sizes that increase towards a center of the spiral construction;
• and
• (B) rotating the containment assembly such that, as oysters grow inside the containment assembly, the oysters are sorted by rotating the containment assembly causing the oysters to tumble into inner layers of the spiral construction where oysters that have grown sufficiently remain and oysters that have not grown sufficiently fall through the holes and return to outer layers of the spiral construction.

A rotatable containment assembly for growing oysters, comprising:

• (1) an outer cylindrical enclosure;
• and
• (2) one or more sheets of material contained within the outer cylindrical enclosure arranged to form a spiral construction having an outer diameter and an inner diameter, wherein the spiral construction comprises one or more turns, and the spiral construction further comprises:
• (i) a plurality of compartments that are in communication with one another;
• (ii) a plurality of walls that define the plurality of compartments;
• (iii) a plurality of ramps, wherein each of the plurality of ramps is attached to a corresponding wall of the plurality of walls so as to form a plurality of pairs of walls and ramps that provide the spiral construction with a spiral shape;
• (iv) a plurality of openings disposed in the plurality of walls and the plurality of ramps, the plurality of openings comprising a plurality of sets of openings with the openings within each set having diameters of a common size, the common size increasing from the outer diameter to the inner diameter of the spiral construction so that, with every complete rotation of the containment assembly, each oyster will tumble further into the spiral construction and ascend from the oyster's original compartment into an adjacent inner compartment where opening size is larger than in the original compartment such that only oysters which have grown sufficiently remain in the adjacent inner compartment while oysters that have not grown sufficiently yet will fall through the openings of the adjacent inner compartment into the original compartment.