They loaded in reverse order. At low tide, there can be seen out in our bay, the structure of an abandoned oyster farm - 2 in fact. The one nearest the head of the bay silted up and its owner built a second one. Both are now abandoned. Both were built before amended regulations came into force (but not retrospective in application) that any structure built in the Sounds for commercial (or personal) use has to be removed when no longer in use.
There are oysters in great clumps along the shoreline too. It is not a place where you wiggle your toes in the sand.
Oysters have even colonised stranded tree trunks.
To add insult to injury the owner of the abandoned oyster racks, abandoned a small (unseaworthy) barge on a beach near Havelock. A recent extra high tide dislodged the hulk sending it spinning out into the Sound where it became a hazard to navigation and appeared in various posted warnings about its random course until a stormy evening fetched it up in our bay where it grounded and sank.
Its owner took to social media to announce it was not for sale or salvage. (F barked a short cynical laugh.) It is neither saleable nor worth the effort to salvage, being in fact a worthless wreck through which the tides have risen and fallen every day since for weeks now.
I'm thinking Wreck Removal Order but none seems to have been promulgated....
And yes they are edible but I'd be reluctant to collect the ones living in the tidal mud.
It’s a shame the old farms are still there. Especially the old boat. But it looks like it’s actually
ReplyDeleteHelped the oysters totally take over the area.
I’d be reluctant to eat them as well. Although they do look tempting
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteAh, something similar happened in the Hawkesbury River, just up from where I lived in OZ - and where I often went rowing. The rocks along the shores there are now covered in 'feral' oyster. I may once have had a couple of good feasts from foraging... not the same silt issue there. The farm owner went bankrupt. Big court case.... few years later, bought by a couple who have since turned the business into a major reason to go visit Brooklyn (The Oyster Shed) ... ooooooh, you sent me down memory lane! YAM xx
A few have foraged from these but one local who describes herself as an oyster snob says the sizes are so variable it's barely worth the effort to knock clumps off the old framework.
DeletePerhaps the barge could become your version of the Great Barrier Reef? Given time.
ReplyDeleteWe would prefer it didn't. It is probably made of plywood and polystyrene from what I have heard about its owner. Environmental hazard (him too).
DeleteCan overgrowth of oysters become a problem or is that not likely to happen? Lots of happy seabirds, maybe?
ReplyDeleteThere must be some sort of limiting factor ikke depth of water and range of tide. They probably don't like being too deep for too long or exposed for too long at low tide. There are loads of birds we call oyster catchers - makes it sound like oysters have to be hunted down, run to ground or cornered... 'catching' oysters needs some contemplation.
Deleteits beautiful but I can see how being abandoned would cause it to spread, I like the word feral ostyers. they are really dangerous and cut worse than a knife. sometimes it works and sometimes not, if you click the photo you want first, last in reverse order it will put them in order. sometimes
ReplyDeleteWhen you think that shellfish are filter feeders..and who knows what is in the water!!!
ReplyDeleteYou have got a good place to be, there
The Sounds are supposed to be clean clean clean - the reputation of the mussel industry depends on it but lets face it these ones on the beach are growing on rocks in mud. Yuck. I don't like shellfish in any form so have no interest in taste testing any of them.
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