“Wild thing, you make my heart sing” popularized by the English rock band the Troggs, was going through my head as I slurped the oysters from Mossel Bay. Eighteen in all, and I was in heaven. Nestled within the Mossel Bay Harbour, the Mossel Bay Oyster Bar offers an idyllic setting for basking in the afternoon sun while indulging in freshly shucked wild oysters. Truly, an afternoon I will never forget, my first wild oyster.
Wild Oysters of Mossel Bay come from the Klein Bark River area near Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay itself is a gem along the Garden Route and always has been one of South Africa’s biggest sources of wild oysters. There are several indigenous species of oysters in South Africa, with the Cape rock oyster or black oyster growing largest on rocky reefs along the east coast. Oysters and their relatives, such as scallops, mussels, and clams, have existed for over 500 million years. Over a decade ago, archaeologists exploring a nearby cave in South Africa uncovered evidence of shellfish dinners enjoyed by humans from 164,000 years ago. This demonstrates how early of a role oysters played in early society and survival.
Oysters are harvested with legal permits form the ocean ensuring that Cape Oysters supplies only the best fresh wild oysters. The Oysters harvested are from the specie called Streostrea Margaretacea – also known as Common Rock Oysters. Harvesting is done in sustainable and eco-friendly manor. Oysters can be distributed though out South Africa. All Oysters are live, none frozen and can live without water for up to 1 week in cold storage.
I was mad with curiosity. I have eaten oysters all over the world but why was this my first straight from the wild and not farmed. But if you think about it all oysters were wild. Sadly, now farmed oysters account for 95 percent of the world’s total oyster consumption.
Oyster farming was practiced by the ancient Romans as early as the 1st century BC on the Italian peninsula. In fact, the Romans were the very first to cultivate Oysters. A Roman engineer was known for his innovative ways of breeding and commercializing oysters. He did this by cultivating the mollusk with a system that could control the water levels. But still they were wild species. The Ancient Romans started farming the Thames Estuary in Hampton-On-Sea, in Kent, England from the 1st Century to approximately the 4th Century.
King Henri IV was said to eat an eye-popping 300 of them at a time. His grandson Louis XIV had them delivered fresh daily to Versailles or wherever he was and was known to eat six dozen at a time. The French oyster industry has relied on 'aqua cultured' oysters since the late 18th century. In 1852 Monsieur de Bon started to re-seed the oyster beds by collecting the oyster spawn using makeshift catchers. An important step to the modern oyster farming was the oyster farm built by Hyacinthe Boeuf in the Ile de Ré. After obtaining the rights to a part of the coast he built a wall to make a reservoir and to break the strength of the current. Sometime later the wall was covered with spat coming spontaneously from the sea which gave 2000 baby oysters per square meter. France is the No. 1 consumer and exporter of oysters in Europe producing 150,000 tons every year.
Back to South Africa; Oyster farming there began in the late 1600s when European settlers attempted to farm the native Cape rock oyster along the Cape coast. Efforts to farm non-native European flat oysters and Portuguese oysters were unsuccessful in the 1940s. In the mid-19th century, oysters gained prominence in South Africa, and oyster farming became synonymous with coastal towns like Knysna. And the introduction of Pacific oysters for aquaculture purposes occurred in the late 1970s. Longline systems are used for grow-out of oysters, and the majority of oysters are supplied as live product to South African markets. The main oyster production areas are marine bays such as Nelson Mandela Bay near Port Elizabeth and Saldanha Bay on the West Coast.
Closer to home on the southwest coast of Florida, I am surrounded by wild oysters within a stones throw of my home we have Oyster Bay, Phillippi Creek and Spanish Point, all covered in wild oyster. None of which we eat now. But these wild oysters are contributing to the health of our bays and waterways by filter feeding, just not for eating, the area is teeming with wildlife, including otters, snook, osprey, and our manatees. As I kayak in the creek the water is very clear and I can see beds of oysters everywhere, giving me hope.
Phillippi Creek is one of Sarasota's oldest landmarks and is home to valuable Eastern Oyster habitat. This river that runs through Sarasota has been used by the ancestors of the Seminole and Miccosukee people for fishing, hunting, gathering, farming, and living. Spanish Point is known for its shell mounds. Over 4,500 years ago, the first Floridians settled around a freshwater spring and harvested tremendous quantities of shellfish from the adjacent shallow waterways, like Phillippi Creek. Stacking the shells of scallops, clams, oysters, whelks, and conches, these early people adapted the landscape while creating massive mounds upon which they could live and prosper. Over time, the mound took on a circular shape around the life-giving spring and grew to a height of 20 feet above sea level. the elevated shell mounds created by the Native Americans thousands of years before.
Many areas in our country are using oysters for restoring the health of rivers and bays. In 1609 when Henry Hudson dropped anchor in the New York Harbor there were 220 thousand acres of oyster reefs. In 2014 an environment program was launched to seed a billion oysters by 2035 back there. At this point it is difficult to measure the impact of the refurbished oyster beds, but a sure sign of improvement can be found by the new biodiversity that has been regenerated. Marine life seems to have blossomed with not just smaller fish but whales swimming into the harbor. The Wild Oyster Project in California dedicated to restoring wild oysters to the San Francisco Bay. To build a truly thriving oyster population not just in the Bay Area and New York, but also the Chesapeake Bay. Together, we can make the bays a cleaner, safer, and hopefully soon more delicious place to have wild oysters on the menu!
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