Oyster season 'worst I’ve seen in 26 years'

The Bluff oyster season is nearly at an finish – and it isn’t one to write down residence about.

Barnes Oysters basic supervisor Graeme Wright mentioned it was the worst oyster season he had seen when it comes to product and high quality of the oysters.

He mentioned not one factor may very well be blamed for the season nevertheless it was simply what occurred when working with a wild fishery.

“The standard was disappointing — most likely the worst I’ve seen in my 26 years within the trade,” he mentioned.

“But it surely is sort of a crop of spuds.

“Some years you may plant them and so they go nice — different years it simply does not occur.

“That’s simply the best way it’s.”

Elements that would have affected the oysters included the drought in Southland over summer time and autumn, which led to a decline in freshwater heading into the ocean.

“There was not a whole lot of freshwater and saltwater interplay.

“Then we acquired a whole lot of easterlies, not many southwesters, which deliver up the vitamins and plankton that the oysters want,” Wright mentioned.

He mentioned reproductivity was excessive within the oysters, which was promising for the long run, nevertheless it meant oysters weren’t of such top quality this yr.

The full allowable catch of Bluff oysters yearly was slightly below 15 million, however there was a voluntary quota set by the trade of simply half that and Barnes Oysters met its quota late final week, he mentioned.

Different processors within the trade had both reached their quota or weren’t far off.

The season finishes on August 31 if the quota just isn’t met.

Wright mentioned there have been good juvenile oysters, which bode nicely for the long run, though the oysters took a very long time to develop — six to eight years — to full maturity.

He mentioned demand was nonetheless excessive and at $28.50 for a uncooked dozen in his store, that they had no downside eliminating them.

Workers had remained loyal and there had been some points with Covid-19 isolation after which the flu season arriving however, total, processors had managed to get by means of.

There had been no signal of the Bonamia ostreae illness, which had despatched worries by means of the trade in current occasions.