"It's wrong to let an oyster slither down unchewed. It should be masticated slowly."

"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

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 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.

In the last five years we’ve realised [oysters] were really abundant parts of our ecosystem and they’re really not present like they used to be.
— Associate Professor Melanie Bishop, Marine ecologist at Macquarie University

Read more about how oysters are being used to help clean up Sydney harbour ->>

We’ve seen large impact on our oyster industry beginning in 2006 and 2007 to the point that the shellfish in hatcheries, the oyster larvae were dying off within two days and they had no way to recover.
— Richard A Feely, US National oceanic and atmospheric administration senior scientist

Read more about the acidification of our oceans here ->>

For organisms that calcify, it (ocean acidification) will be much harder for those into the future to build their shells.

It also means reproductive health, the life stages of the marine organisms may be impacted.

What that means is that the whole tropic chain, the whole food web is impacted from the bottom to the top, and we have no idea how that will play out.
— CSIRO senior research scientist Dr Andrew Lenton

Read more about the effects of ocean acidification as our climate warms here -->