30,000 rare oysters being reintroduced to Firth of Forth

May 15, 2024 11:20 PM

30,000 rare oysters are being reintroduced to Firth of Forth. (The Firth of Forth is in Scotland, it is a body of water just North of Edinburgh.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (13 comments total)

Lovely piece of news, thank you! I didn't know about singing to the oysters.
posted by paduasoy at 11:59 PM on May 15

Did a bit of research and found that such creatures (even gigantic) are mostly harmless. I actually love the connection of clearing water for seagrass. Thank you, as ever, for your lovely posts!
posted by HearHere at 12:13 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

"...I have heard the oysters singing, each to each..."

yeah, guy missed a trick there.

(there are similar/different efforts in New York harbor - and the Chesapeake Bay. For all of the news about our garbageing the world over the last couple centuries, there are as many stories about the ways we are turning it around. Thanks!)
posted by From Bklyn at 2:06 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]

Forth oysters were the inspiration for Edinburgh's poet, Robert Fergusson, to write the wonderful "Caller Oysters" (Fresh Oysters) in the 1770s, when oyster bars provided cheap food for the masses. Here's the text (in the Scots language, here's a dictionary), but you'll probably do just fine if you hear it read.
posted by tmacdonald at 3:10 AM on May 16 [8 favorites]

Well I hope those 30,000 rare oysters being reintroduced to Firth of Forth enjoy its fantastic frothiness.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:52 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

Worth noting, as the BBC articles does, that molluscs of all kinds were historically common up and down the firth. In fact the town of Musselburgh that borders Edinburgh is named for just this reason.

It's even got an appropriate statue, if you're interested in visiting. Quite shiny, even in darkest winter.
posted by sarcas at 7:06 AM on May 16 [3 favorites]

(The Firth of Forth is in Scotland, it is a body of water just North of Edinburgh.)

But the first this Yank learned of it was via the amazing Genesis song from 'Selling England By The Pound.' And these rare oysters... are singing? Of course they are! And now you know what they're singing.
posted by Rash at 7:52 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

I wish there were three other Firths of Forth. Or maybe even four others.
posted by martin q blank at 9:44 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]

martin q blank: Just have faith!
posted by JHarris at 10:00 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

Oysters do Rock [on my wife's blog], a mural a couple of hours south of me in Bluff where they hold an annual oyster festival.

On a more serious note saltwater oysters (and their land-based brethren the freshwater mussels [Fanfare on the book Immersion]) are amazing for their ability to filter vast volumes of water - as long as we keep that water free of synthetic pollutants they are able to handle many of the natural pollutants.

HUGE volumes of water such as Chesapeake Bay (prior to 1870, before over-fishing, and then pollution took their toll) where they oysters were turning over (filtering) the total bay volume every 3.3 days!, [.pdf oyster-restoration.org a Maryland trust] by 1988 cycle time was 325 days.
posted by unearthed at 11:19 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

They have the opportunity to do the funniest possible thing here by introducing the oysters into only 25% of this body of water.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:29 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]

martin q blank: if it's any consolation, both Forfar and Fife are not far away.
posted by vincebowdren at 3:02 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]

A friend asked me about this and it isn't clear from the article. Will the oysters be fished? We have a problem locally (south coast of England) with unauthorised shellfish fishing from small boats, despite the water being pretty revolting and therefore the stuff being risky to eat.
posted by paduasoy at 1:03 AM on May 17