European Oysters Are Rare Outside Of Upscale Restaurants After Their Reefs Vanished From Europe’s Seas
Europe’s seas were home to sprawling oyster reefs more than six generations ago. These reefs spanned many miles and were filled with millions of oysters. Today, the reefs have vanished, and the world contains much fewer oysters.
European flat oysters were highly regarded throughout history, though. During the 1800s and probably even earlier, people in London would celebrate Oyster Day each August.
The streets would be lined with stalls selling oysters, and kids would build small structures from the shells. Now, this tradition is long gone.
Ancient Roman records even mentioned oyster farms off the coast of Italy, and oyster trade reached as far north as Scotland. Both the rich and the poor enjoyed oysters. The seafood even inspired art, poems, and festivals.
The decline of oysters began during the industrial revolution. Oysters became increasingly in demand. Fisheries expanded, and more oysters were harvested from farther away to feed the growing market.
Authorities and fishers were already worried about declining oyster populations by the early 1800s.
Wild populations collapsed a century later, and European oysters are rare outside of upscale restaurants today. The dramatic drop in oyster harvests has been widely documented.
For instance, over 30 million oysters were harvested per year in the 1830s around the east coast of Scotland near Edinburgh.
Half a century later, less than 300,000 oysters were harvested per year. By the 1950s, oysters were deemed locally extinct. The same trend occurred across other coastal locations in Europe.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
The decline of oysters was also accompanied by the loss of their habitat. Currently, Europe’s seafloor is made up of shifting sand and mud, kelp-covered boulders, and some patches of seagrass interspersed here and there rather than large, complex shell reefs.
A team of 37 researchers analyzed historical sources spanning 350 years and identified more than 1,000 locations where oyster habitats once existed.
There used to be extensive reefs along the coasts of Denmark, France, Ireland, and the U.K., as well as areas of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Reefs also occurred over hundreds of miles in the southern North Sea between the U.K. and the Netherlands. Information was only available for about a quarter of historical reef locations, but overall, there used to be more than 1.7 million hectares of oyster reef, an area that’s bigger than Northern Ireland.
That diverse ecosystem has since collapsed. The disappearance of large oyster reef structures means the loss of a cheap, nutritious food source, coastal jobs, communities of marine life, fisheries, water filtration, shoreline protection, and sediment stabilization.
European coastal communities are working to restore native oyster populations. This involves reintroducing oysters and providing shells for oyster larvae to settle on. Perhaps oyster reefs will become a feature of European seabeds again someday.
More About:News
Read This Next
