How To Love An Oyster

While sapiens destroy a beautiful species in name of appetizers; once again sheer hard work few good humans might help Oysters: 

And you pretty much have to be a zealot to love an oyster. Just about anyone can fall for a whale. A select few might grow fond of an octopus. An oyster, immobile and nearly brainless, is hardly even an animal, despite what the taxonomists tell us. Some plants possess more personality: They sport showy flowers, fuzzy leaves, colorful fruits. They grow and change with the seasons, luring in pollinators and herbivores. Loving an oyster is like loving a rock. And a person who advertises their love of Olys is like that insufferable friend who rides around town on a fixed-gear bicycle and listens to bands you can’t stream on Spotify.

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These researchers are all conducting objective, rigorous science. But it’s clear they’re also gunning for a particular outcome: proving to their families, their friends, and the rest of the world that the invertebrate indie band they care so much about is worth the trouble.

“This species has a PR problem for sure,” admits April Ridlon, past coordinator of the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative who’s now with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “I think it’s hard for people to envision that these things are even alive.” At the very least, she says, we need to know what we will lose if these oysters vanish and what we might gain if we succeed in bringing them back.

When oyster populations are healthy, they spread billions of microscopic larvae that drift and sway with the currents before rooting themselves on terra firma, where they clean the water of detritus—including algae that they magically transform into sumptuous, edible protein. Like beavers or termites, they are ecosystem engineers, shaping the habitat where they live.

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For the Olys, one of the most persuasive reasons to restore them is that they belong here, and bringing them back isn’t like resurrecting the Tasmanian tiger or the wooly mammoth. Although Oly populations are undoubtedly lower than they once were, they are still hanging on in most parts of their range. They just need a helping hand—typically, a better substrate for their spat to settle on to increase survivorship.

Over the last decade, at least 39 Olympia oyster restoration projects have gotten off the ground, according to the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative. That’s an increase from the 24 projects launched the previous decade. Most of these projects are small efforts, costing a few hundred thousand dollars and covering less than a hectare. But they are making a difference: most of the projects that kept track of oyster numbers and densities over time have reported success.