"It's wrong to let an oyster slither down unchewed. It should be masticated slowly."
Helford, Cornwall. 1956. Shots of fishing boats on the River Helford. M/S man at helm of boat whilst 2 men throw nets over the side in order to catch oysters. Shots of them hauling nets onto boat and unloading the oysters. Manager of the oyster farm Leonard Hodges lends a hand and culls the latest catch.
Oyster thieves strike Merimbula farmers
One Sunday morning Pip and Dominic Boyton from Merimbula Gourmet Oysters woke to find more than $500 worth of stock stolen.
“Sometimes we think the thieves don’t realise how much it affects us,” Mr Boyton said.
“People wouldn’t jump a fence and steal a sheep from a farmer but people seem to steal from oyster farmers all the time.
Each oyster takes three years to grow before it is ready to be eaten and during the growing period every single oyster is touched no less than 32 times by the farmers.
“It’s a three year investment and to find it stolen is very frustrating,” he said.
The life cycle of an oyster
The life cycle of the oyster begins when eggs and sperm are shed into the water where fertilisation takes place. After 2-3 weeks the larvae settle and attach themselves to a surface where they continue to grow. This surface may be artificially provided by oyster growers and is the basis for wild spat collection. 'Spat' is the term used to refer to small oysters, usually less than 12 months old.
Oysters can filter 5 liters of water an hour.
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Scientists are set to begin transferring juvenile native oysters to a specially prepared seabed in an ambitious project aimed at restoring shellfish reefs on the south coast of Western Australia.
See Sean Murphy's report here ->>
Find out more about one teams efforts to rejuvenate shellfish reefs in Western Australia ->> here
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