Oysters

[Moxi]

Now and again I take the boys down to a bit of a sandy rocky beach off the Menai straights and at low tide there are quite a few oysters about two to three inch thick and 6 plus inches around crusted in barnacles on their top shell but clean underneath.

What do they taste like ? I like scallops and cockles but never tried other shellfish including oysters.

Also when foraging oysters is there anything to be mindful of if I was to try one or two ?

Moxi

[Stinsy]

You should always be wary of consuming filter feeders. They concentrate heavy metals etc. And that part of the world has some potentially very undesirable industrial legacy. How much is in the environment and contained in any one particular oyster is difficult to know.

Probably fine in small amounts...

[Joeboy]

When we used to boil up pots of mussels we did not eat the ones that didn't naturally open on the boil.

I'd give it a go. No more than 40 at a sitting.

[Bugtownboy]

I think oysters are delightful, Moxi.

Have them ‘natural’ - no vinegar, shallots, lemon etc. A pure taste of the sea - chew them lightly and enjoy the sea/ozone/fresh taste.

I’ve only ever liked relatively small oysters and have been fastidious of where I’ve eaten them.

As Stinsy says, be very wary if you’re at all unsure of their ‘provenance’.

If it was me, and you were in any doubt, show them to the boys then take them to a reputable restaurant to try half a dozen between you.

I wouldn’t be worried about heavy metal/chemical contamination from one or two, more likely faecal contamination given the state of coastal waters.

Even good shellfish can carry bacterial or viral faecal contamination that can really make you ill.

[Moxi]

Thanks guys,

Next time im down there I shall take my phone and get some photos, I may give one a try as they are sat in a shallow tributary to the southern exit of the Menai straights and the straights have exceptional water quality and Mon salt is produced from the water there where these oysters feed. The river feeding this stretch comes off our mountain and there are no treatment works along that river and only grazing for sheep and cattle.

Shame it isn’t scallops as I would have been in like Flynn as I love those - might have to start taking the lads over to llanbedwrog to find those.

Appreciate your input,

Moxi

[nowty]

Thanks guys,

Next time im down there I shall take my phone and get some photos, I may give one a try as they are sat in a shallow tributary to the southern exit of the Menai straights and the straights have exceptional water quality and Mon salt is produced from the water there where these oysters feed. The river feeding this stretch comes off our mountain and there are no treatment works along that river and only grazing for sheep and cattle.

Shame it isn’t scallops as I would have been in like Flynn as I love those - might have to start taking the lads over to llanbedwrog to find those.

Appreciate your input,

Moxi

Would you have still eaten them pre 2015 when Wilfra was still running ?

[Moxi]

Yeah Wylfa is so far away around the coast and they dry stored their spent fuel and had a positive pressure coolant system so that I wouldn't be bothered by stray particle ingestion - but you should have seen the size of the mussels and the bass that people pulled out of the warm coolant water return channels when Wylfa was operational though - they were well fed huge fellas.

I was more worried by the fact that from 1945 to the mid to late 50's the UK Government stored 71,000 German nerve agent munitions at RAF Llanwdrog in the open air - right next to the oyster bed! its ok though because in the 1960s they put them all in boats and ditched them off the Cumbria coast near Sellafield - I mean what could possible go wrong ?

Moxi

[cojmh]

I grew up in the Solway firth area, right by the sea and I was always warned about munitions potentially washing up on the beaches ..... I never saw any but it was common enough.

I think the munitions dump was called Beaufort Dyke - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/beaufor ... amination/

I seem to remember there might have been another one too but I cannot find a reference to it now.

Certainly makes you think about eating the sea life locally!

[John_S]

Hurd Deep, a 500ft deep trench, was another dumping ground until 1974.
It lies to the north west of Guernsey and Alderney in the English channel.

[Joeboy]

When we laid Nordstream pipeline the survey of the areas came across massive amounts of dumped munitions that were known of after WW1 & 2, There was also a lot of stuff that was completely unknown. As a result the pipeline had quite a few course changes to avoid the dump sites.

There was anecdotal evidence that Russian fishing boats used to come out and dump barrels of unknown material in the Baltic under the cover of darkness. This was a regular occurrence and had went on for decades.

I instigated new procedures, tools. PPE and emergency drills due to the possibility of suffocants as well as radioactive material inadvertently being brought back onboard on the ROV's, into enclosed hangers which had drains which fed directly into storage tanks below decks.

I got what i wanted but was not invited back to the London office after that. I freaked the Italians out when they tried to be flippant about the risks. "How much are your balls worth to you?" were my exact words. The meeting room went very quiet and the little fuds who wouldn't be out there on the worksite and were dismissing the risks backed right down and we went from there. Ah the joys!

An interesting job, nobody onboard went fishing and nobody got hurt.