There’s a day every year, as the long New England winter comes to a close, when Chris Sherman ’07 can sense a change in the air. The water warms, and algae production resumes, creating a briny aroma. An easterly breeze carries the scent across the bay and into downtown Duxbury, Mass., where Sherman serves as president of Island Creek Oysters.
“You don’t get that with any other natural phenomena,” says Sherman. “We live in such close harmony and communion with the ocean.”
This visceral connection to the ocean has been an undercurrent throughout Sherman’s life, inspiring an interest in sailing and a decision to pursue a concentration in maritime studies at Williams College. He participated in the Williams-Mystic program—a collaboration between the college and the Mystic Seaport Museum—where he studied coastal environments through a variety of lenses, such as art, literature, history, science and public policy.
The call of the ocean also drew him to take a job as an oyster farmer for Island Creek Oysters two years after graduating from Williams.
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