Oyster diving?

[Eric Sedletzky]

Has anyone ever come across any oysters while diving? I’m just curious.
I went to an oyster farm yesterday and picked up a few dozen. That got me thinking that maybe some of the larvae escapes and establishes itself somewhere else away from the sanctioned farm beds that’s legal to harvest by those who happen to come across them.
I would have to look up the regulations on oyster harvesting. I don’t even know if there is such a thing?
I would guess that oysters had to be wild at some point in history.
I love oysters.

 

[RyanT]

@rob.mwpropane

 

[Bigbella]

We raised oysters for some years, on a tideland lease, primarily for the laboratory market, at Elkhorn Slough, Moss Landing, not far from Monterey -- and also ate a great many of them.

Oysters are estuarine and require a rich, calcium carbonate substrate, for which the "seed" to set -- the chief reason why most farms still suspend wired-together lengths of the empty shells -- cultch -- for the planktonic stages, as raw material to form their shells. Oysters are also highly susceptible to predation from some marine snails, skates and rays and are typically only thinly dispersed outside of farm settings.

You'll find them on occasion but rarely enough for a decent oyster stew, at least in Northern CA.

The California native species, Ostrea lurida, is commercially extinct, though there have since been efforts to reintroduce them; though they were largely outcompeted by introduced European and Asian species which were both faster-growing and dispersing, since, as some in the industry concluded, that they didn't brood their young (veliger) as did O. lurida, but rather just broadcast spawn . . .

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Yes, on my family's beach house along the Hood Canal. Sometimes, I just wait for the tide to go down to pick them up. I prefer to eat them in winter, as summer they are a bit slimy.

 

[The Chairman]

Being filter feeders, I think they need dirty brackish water.

 

[Bigbella]

I prefer to eat them in winter, as summer they are a bit slimy.

Yeah, they're typically spawning in the Summer in this part of the world -- and almost everything is squidgy and gonadal by that time of the year; little glycogen-rich muscle tissue left and an all-too typical reason why many dislike oysters, based upon texture . . .

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Yeah, they're typically spawning in the Summer in this part of the world -- and almost everything is squidgy and gonadal by that time of the year; little glycogen-rich muscle tissue left and an all-too typical reason why many dislike oysters, based upon texture . . .

Hasn't stopped some friends who sit on the beach for hours opening them up and slurping them down (which makes me nauseous).

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Has anyone ever come across any oysters while diving? I’m just curious.
I went to an oyster farm yesterday and picked up a few dozen. That got me thinking that maybe some of the larvae escapes and establishes itself somewhere else away from the sanctioned farm beds that’s legal to harvest by those who happen to come across them.
I would have to look up the regulations on oyster harvesting. I don’t even know if there is such a thing?
I would guess that oysters had to be wild at some point in history.
I love oysters.View attachment 789557

Yes.. dive for them every chance I get. Probably 1 or 2 trips a month when in season (can only be Saturdays here 8am-12pm). It is some of the most fun I have diving, I get all my kids out there. It's a great time.

Trip Report - Chesapeake Bay Oyster Dive 01/08/22

Good day all... everyone seems to be nice enough to enlighten me with their trip reports around the world so I try to give back when I can. We left out of Annapolis with "Gone Fishin' Charters" and Captain Ray. (sorry, it's a FB link; Gone Fishin' Charters) Arrived at the dock at 6:30ish or...

scubaboard.com

 

[rob.mwpropane]

@Eric Sedletzky I think I got out 6 or 7 times last season, each time bringing home anywhere from 2-300 oysters per trip. My whole family eats them. Every year that is my contribution for the Christmas get together.. go out, collect oysters and show up to the party with a cooler full of freshy harvested specimens. Delicious.

I have no idea what the oysters from California taste like, but here they change tastes even just a few miles apart. It's interesting how it works. Just by dropping 2 miles in the Bay and a little more East and it's a different flavor and size even.

I hope you find a good bed to get out on, if for any reason you're ever over this way I'd be happy to take you out and feed you all the oysters you can eat!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

@Eric Sedletzky I think I got out 6 or 7 times last season, each time bringing home anywhere from 2-300 oysters per trip. My whole family eats them. Every year that is my contribution for the Christmas get together.. go out, collect oysters and show up to the party with a cooler full of freshy harvested specimens. Delicious.

I have no idea what the oysters from California taste like, but here they change tastes even just a few miles apart. It's interesting how it works. Just by dropping 2 miles in the Bay and a little more East and it's a different flavor and size even.

I hope you find a good bed to get out on, if for any reason you're ever over this way I'd be happy to take you out and feed you all the oysters you can eat!

Wow! Brilliant! (as @Happy Diver would say.
I get mine in the town of Marshall at a place called Hog Island Oyster Co. in Tomales Bay.
The medium size are $2 a piece so it adds up fast.
They are pretty damn good. I eat several raw then cook up the rest.
As I’m doing research with Department of Fish and Wildlife, you can take oysters but there are many restrictions including no use of scuba or surface supplied air (hookah). So that means wading in intertidal zones and/or snorkelling/freediving. Our oysters are also not native, they are an east coast variety that were planted here but they thrive. The native ones were harvested to extinction many years ago.
It sounds like you are in a much better place for oysters. Maybe I should move to Maryland?