Like some sort of permanent oysternami. There were up to 300 of the bastards per square metre. Now it’s thought that there are around 500 tons of Pacific Oysters breeding in the area, all roughly the size of an average person’s hand.

"One can almost imagine the beer as the knife that cracks the oyster open – there seems to be a primal connection between them. The flavour of the oyster is magically magnified and fills the senses" - Garret Oliver, The Brewmaster’s Table

"When I opened Astra [his first restaurant], about 17 years ago we were shucking oysters to order and the clientele were sending them back because they were salty … But now everyone recognises a good oyster and everyone is look for that taste of the sea." - Sean Connolly, Chef at Morrisons.

"The Olympia used to range in great abundance from Baja California up to Vancouver, until overfishing during the gold rush began a decline that was hastened by pollution from industry and silt runoff from construction projects. As Olympia stocks plummeted, oyster farmers rushed to import Atlantic oysters from the East Coast and fast-growing Pacific oysters from the Miyagi region of Japan. The two outsider species quickly displaced the slow-growing native oyster. Soon Olympias all but ceased to be cultivated." - Coby McDonald, Popular Science

Amazing microscopic footage of a baby oysters heart beat. This was posted by Taylors Shell Fish in the USA.

"A foggy morning lurks over a Coffin Bay oyster farm in South Australia.

I planned this shoot in my head for months, and ended up taking this shot in the dead of winter wearing nothing more than a pair of board shorts. 
All the planning time in the world and I still forgot to bring a wetsuit. Go figure. 
I didn't stop shooting until my hands went blue and my finger couldn't physically press the shutter button anymore. Scored some great snaps out of it though." - Robert Lang, Photographer

Perry examines his path to developing sustainable aquaculture in Rhode Island, and points to the global need as protein demands rise and fisheries decline. Perry Raso, owner of Matunuck Oyster Bar, Matunuck Oyster Farm and Matunuck Vegetable Farm, is a new breed of aquaculturist who combines a love of farming with education, science, and a global environmental outlook.

Have you ever wondered what varieties of oyster are available in Australia? Sydney City Oysters has four varieties on its list with at least two other varieties available in other parts of Australia.

The coastline of South Australia once had 1500 km of oyster reefs along its coastline. Heidi Alleway (Tall Poppy Award Winner) did a very clever piece of work at the University of Adelaide, piecing together historical evidence that showed that these oyster reefs existed and were completely fished out and removed between the late 1800s and early 1900s (Alleway and Connell, 2015).

These shellfish reefs likely played an important role in removing nutrients and sedimentation from coastal waters, provided habitat for marine life. By keeping the waters clean, this would have created the right conditions for seagrass habitat which again would have provided important habitat for marine life. Australia has a very poor record in this regard, with most of our oyster reefs functionally extinct.

 When I’m eating an oyster, first, I taste with my eyes, Japanese-style. I see the oyster in its shell, and right away, I can tell whether it’s going to be good or not. This is one of my pet peeves: an oyster should be opaque; it shouldn’t be gray. It should be filling up its shell, and what you see so often—from high-end restaurants that should know better to the sketchy generic oyster bars that are just trying to get the cheap stuff—is an oyster that’s totally translucent or one that’s not filling it’s shell. There’s a ton of water in there. If you see either of those things, you know it’s not going be great because it’s got nothing in it. When it’s ivory or opaque, that’s because it’s been feeding really well and it’s full of starches and sugars and proteins. And when it’s in the off-season, it doesn’t have any food which turns it—in a sense—into a bag of water.

Author Rowan Jacobsen settles on twenty rules for "choosing - and dispatching - oysters" and wants you to let everyone else know what they are.

“When I think about the impacts of climate change, it’s not just that there is erosion…but rather that erosion seems to be accelerating at a dramatic rate.” - Bernie Herman, Oyster Farmer