"shellfish" news and stories

Gulf Coast oyster harvesters say a food safety plan introduced by the Food and Drug Administration this weekend could doom the domestic oyster industry by subjecting sellers to regulations they call needless and cost-prohibitive.

The FDA's Michael Taylor cited the deadly threat posed by the bacterium vibrio vulnificus in explaining the agency's decision to ban the sale of fresh, live, unprocessed oysters from Florida, Louisiana and Texas during the warm summer months. The law is set to take effect in 2011.

Oysters that have been quick-frozen, heated, pressurized or treated with gamma rays will be exempt from the ban, which mirrors a law adopted by California in 2003. According to Taylor, that law has winnowed the state's vibrio death rate to nearly zero, with just one fatality being investigated as a possible vibrio case. The nationwide vibrio death rate over the same period has approached 15 annually.

Photo: huggingthecoast.com food blog/Flickr

Shrimp baiting may be nasty and expensive, but for the shrimp festival in Yemassee, S.C., it's cause for celebration.

Crowds will converge upon the low-country town this weekend to feast on shrimp gumbo, meet Miss Yemassee and pay tribute to shrimp baiting. But even Lori Poston, who's chairing the 16th annual festival, cops to being slightly ambivalent about the peculiar regional practice of using a mix of clay and fish meal to lure thousands of wriggling shrimp.

"It stinks to high heaven," Poston says of the traditional bait. "It's the stinkingest thing you ever smelled. When my husband comes back from shrimp baiting, he takes his clothes off at the door."

Shrimp caught using bait don't return in much better shape than the shrimpers, she adds.

"The vein's the main thing," Poston says. "The meal gets into the shrimp and you have to clean the veins. It's nice when you can just free cast without bait."

Oyster, passion fruit jelly and lavender at the Fat Duck. Photo: smashz, Flickr

The Fat Duck restaurant is one of the world's finest eateries and has the statistics to prove it -- three Michelin stars, a number two rating by S. Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants, among them -- but it's the number 529 that has stuck with the restaurant since February.

That's the number of customers who fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea at the Bray, England restaurant, and forced its two-week closure. Now, Britain's Health Protection Agency has published a 47-page report pinning the blame on norovirus caused by oysters contaminated with human sewage, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Recycling heap in South Carolina. Photo: huggingthecoast, Flickr.

Coastal conservationists say the first South Carolinians had the right idea when they flung the remnants of their oyster feasts back into the ocean.

"Native people didn't put their oysters in a cooler and head down the road for a party," says Joy Brown, marine restoration specialist for the South Carolina Nature Conservancy. "They put their oysters right back in the water."

The Nature Conservancy is now trying to replicate the Cusabo's recycling habits, which they credit with sustaining the state's oyster crop, filtering its waters and preventing shoreline erosion. The advocacy organization is partnering with the Department of Natural Resources on a pilot program to collect emptied oyster shells from Charleston-area restaurants and return them to the sea.

"A lot of times, these shells are going into landfills," Brown says. "But they can serve a better purpose."

Last taste of summer. Photo: Jennifer Iserloh

I've been craving a lobster roll from Mary's Fish Camp in New York as of late, but since I've already maxed out the bank account with a mini trip to Miami, Mary's will have to wait for October.

I'm hooked on their lobster roll, that's really the only reason I go there. If you are lucky enough to get a table, their "limited" supply lobster roll is at market price, usually around $33.

So here is my healthier (and cheaper) version that you can have at home -- yes, Mary's fans know it's not exactly the same. Yet it's still tasty and satisfies the craving, working out to about $12 a pop.