Brewster's Oyster Sundays Swing Between Sunrise and Sunset This Fall. Plan by the Tide Column.

Brewster's first Oyster Sunday of 2026 ended at sunset on October 25. The next one starts at 8 a.m. on November 1. The one after that, on November 8, ends at sunset again. The Department of Natural Resources opens the oyster cages at Mants Landing each Sunday at low tide, and the low tide moves through the day from one week to the next. That makes the season a series of mornings and evenings that trade places.

If you hold a 2026 recreational shellfish permit, the column to watch on the Town's posted schedule is the low tide. Everything else about the day follows from it.

Why the harvest goes where the water goes

The oysters sit in cages on the town's oyster grant at Mants Landing, on the bay side between Paine's Creek and Saint's Landing. The Town didn't always hold the harvest there. According to the Cape Cod Chronicle's account of the 2023 opener, Oyster Sundays began at Ellis Landing. The harvest moved to Mants because the slippery rocks and tough access at Ellis made things hard for volunteers and permit holders. The Chronicle also reported that the tidal range at Mants leaves the beach and oyster farm exposed longer than at Ellis, which makes it safer and easier to reach for harvesters.

That exposure window is the whole session. DNR staff open the cages when the flats drain, and the harvest hours on the schedule frame that low tide.

The schedule shows a second limit too. Brewster's 2026 non-commercial shellfish regulations ban harvesting between sunset and sunrise. That is why some sessions on the Town's table carry a "(sunset)" or "(sunrise)" tag. When low tide falls near the end of the day, the session stops at dark. When it falls early, the session starts at first light.

The nine Sundays left, sorted by light

Nine sessions remain after October 25, and here is how they fall. The tide heights are as printed by the Town.

Five sessions are mornings and three are afternoons, and December 20 is the only one that sits in the middle of the day. Three mornings start right at sunrise, at 7 a.m. The shortest windows are November 8 and December 13, at two hours each. The highest low tide of the season comes on November 15 at 1.9, and the lowest is the finale on December 27 at -0.7.

If you only think of Oyster Sunday as a morning outing, you'll miss four of the nine remaining sessions.

Showing up later works fine

The Town says outright that "there will be plenty of oysters, so there is no need to arrive early." That fits the setting. A CapeCod.com photo report from April 2026 describes the Mants Landing lot as small, with room for "a few cars," and the landing is reached off Robbins Hill Road.

The Town's instructions for each session lay out the order of the day:

1. Bring a valid 2026 shellfish permit. DNR staff check permits before anyone goes out on the flats.
2. Wait in the parking lot while staff get the cages ready.
3. Wear gloves and boots or waders, plus clothes for the weather. The afternoon sessions end at dusk in late fall.
4. Take up to five quarts of oysters, which is the weekly limit for Oyster Sunday.

Oysters also have a minimum size of three inches under the 2026 regulations. That limit sits inside a general weekly cap of 10 quarts across shellfish species, with sea clams and scallops excluded.

Where 150,000 oysters come from

These oysters were grown in Brewster. In a May 2026 Cape Cod Chronicle profile, the paper reported that Brewster runs its own propagation program for oysters and quahogs. That includes an upweller system pumping water through screens in Sesuit Harbor, and the shellfish it raises are for public consumption.

The program goes back to Bob Mant, who led the Town's natural resources department. The Chronicle's 2023 report says Barnstable County shellfish propagation funds led him to start experimenting with oyster growing. Ryan Burch, Brewster's Senior Shellfish and Natural Resource Officer, first came to Brewster through Mant. The Massachusetts Shellfish Officer's Association named Burch the 2025 Massachusetts Shellfish Constable of the Year. He described the growth of Oyster Sunday to the Chronicle, crediting Natural Resources Director Chris Miller with giving him room to build it:

"From the first year fulltime to take the oyster program and turn it from four to five weeks of oyster Sundays for probably 50 people. This year we did 12 oyster Sundays with an average 250 people. That's the equivalent of 150,000 oysters we grew and gave out to a lot of people."

That was the 2025 season, which ran from October 19 to December 28. The 2026 schedule lists ten Sundays from October 25 to December 27. You can see the scale at the low end of the curve too. At the first harvest of 2023, the Chronicle counted about 12,000 oysters going to 276 permit holders.

Burch has also pointed out that the oysters filter water and can spawn and settle elsewhere in the bay.

November 22 does double duty

The Sunday before Thanksgiving gets its own flag on the Town schedule. On November 22, DNR asks harvesters to bring non-perishable food to help local families over the holidays. The Town also says to ask for its list of high-demand items. That session runs from 1:30 p.m. until sunset at 4:17 p.m., with a -0.4 low tide at 3:07 p.m.

Burch told the Chronicle that the pre-Thanksgiving harvest is especially popular. "We filled one truck and now we fill three trucks," he said. The donations go to the Lower Cape Outreach Council food pantry at Brewster Baptist Church, 1848 Main Street. The organization runs nine food pantries across the Lower Cape. Its pantry page lists general donation ideas such as cereal, baked beans, beef stew, almond milk, and ground coffee. Those are standing suggestions, so DNR's own list is the better guide for November 22.

December has its own tradition. Burch told the Chronicle, "It's not unusual to see me dressed as Santa on the flats around Christmas giving out oysters."

Before your first Sunday on the flats

Everyone on the flats needs a valid 2026 shellfish permit. You can buy one in person at Town Hall or online through the Town's permit portal. Senior permits for residents and veterans aged 70 and up are sold at the Council on Aging. The Town's FY27 budget data, updated in August 2026, lists annual shellfish permit rates of $40 for residents, $140 for nonresidents, and $15 for a new senior permit.

The 2026 regulations set out who qualifies. A resident family permit covers a Brewster taxpayer or legally domiciled resident plus qualifying immediate household family. It shares one weekly limit and is capped at one per residential address. The senior permit is for the named holder, who must be there to harvest, and it is also capped at one per address.

Check the conditions before you load the car. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has closed Cape Cod Bay growing areas after heavy rain before. One example is a September 2024 emergency closure that covered areas off Brewster and other Lower and Outer Cape towns. DMF's shellfish classification page tells harvesters to contact their local shellfish constable for current classification and closure information. For Oyster Sunday, that's Ryan Burch at (508) 896-4546 or [email protected].

This is general information about the Town's posted rules, not legal advice. Confirm permit eligibility and current conditions with Brewster's Natural Resources Department before you harvest.

The Sandyside Team is based just down Route 6A in Yarmouth Port, and Brewster's bay-side landings are part of the Cape we know best. If you're thinking about what your own place near the flats is worth, Glenn Knapik and the team will put together a free home valuation, and we're glad to trade tide-table notes while we do.