More about Oysters …..and WA State Official Oyster

Moving slowly today, with a cold/cough, I did manage a walk around and inspection of the beach…so…. time for more about oysters....

These are the PACIFIC oysters (Crassostrea gigas) naturally growing on our beach in British Columbia. Put my size 12 boot in there for scale - some of oysters are 7 in. long. Oysters owe much of their flavor to the specific environment in which they grow - the food that tastes most like the sea. There are at least 200 unique oyster appellations in North America, each producing oysters with a distinct flavor. I am definitely no oyster connoisseur and am quite sure I’d not be able to tell a “sweet, metallic, celery-salt” flavor from one that is “coppery” or “nutty and musky”. Those are all terms describing OLYMPIA oysters grown in different places (called Terroir.)

The Olympic Oyster (Ostrea lurida) was just 2 days ago designated a Washington State Symbol after a 14 year old 8th grader pushed the bill through congress to recognize this part of our culture, agricultural production, and the threats affecting them.!! (and to demonstrate how young people can participate in government! ) It is the only native oyster to the West coast of the US and its numbers have been greatly reduced by overharvesting, pollution and loss of habitat, and now new dangers from ocean acidification.

Oysters are important in regulating the health and diversity of the estuarine ecosystem. Because they feed by filtering phytoplankton and bacteria from seawater, a sizable population can reduce the mount of algae in the bay and help control water quality. the beds that form when oysters settle near each other help stabilize the muddy bottoms of the estuary and may improve habitat conditions for eelgrass, an important estuarine plant. The hard complex surfaces provided by groups of oysters provide a unique habitat in which other animals can hide, settle or lay eggs. In this way, a substantial oyster population could increase species diversity. A number of restoration efforts are currently underway to restore Olympia oyster beds along the west coast of the US. South Puget sound (near Olympia, WA) is the only place commercially harvesting this native oyster, which is round and small - about 1/6 the size of these Pacific oysters.

Other oyster blips with other info.... …
Oysters in our bay
Setting the scene for oysters
Sunset beach - oysters on the Hood Canal

and if you rally want to know more about oysters, Ronan Jacobson who wrote the interesting little book "The Living shore:Rediscovering a Lost World" I read, also wrote A Geography of Oysters. and a new one about Terroir…

Sorry for all those words….
time to go get warm in the sauna!