Hey Collegues,
David Kushner, our CINP Kelp Environment expert, cofirms they are invasive,
good eating Oysters! Read on! Cheers, Paul
From: "Kushner, David" <david_kushner@xxxxxxx>Paul Petrich Jr
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Fwd: [cinc] Type of Shellfish?
Date: July 22, 2019 at 1:34:18 PM PDT
To: Paul Petrich <ppetrich39@xxxxxx>
Hi Paul,
You are extremely observant and aware, it is greatly appreciated! Those are
Pacific Oyster or Japanese Oysters (Crassostrea gigas), and approximately
less than 10 years ago they were rare or completely absent from Ventura
Harbor. Over the last several years they have become very abundant in the
harbors nearby and no doubt noticeable in Ventura Harbor now. This past year
I have been telling every CINP staff I get down to the docks about these and
how this is a new occurrence and that they weren't here just a few years
back. See the SeaGrant article below for a bit of information, but they
have been slowly making their way North. From what I recently read it appears
they need relatively warm water, around 70 F or so to successfully spawn. I
suspect that during the recent warm water event of 2014/2015 is when we began
observing a rapid increase here, but I wasn't nor was anyone else I know
counting them so we really have no data other than observations from people
like you and I.
Share this info with others, it is a great example of a changing world right
in our backyard. Happy to chat more regarding this and again Kudos for being
the only one I know other than myself that I have heard bring this topic up.
https://caseagrant.ucsd.edu/news/a-new-oyster-invades ;
<https://caseagrant.ucsd.edu/news/a-new-oyster-invades>
Oh, on a side note, I really wish our water was clean enough for me to think
about eating these, I love Oysters and these are the good ones. The article
makes a good reference not to eat them...
Cheers
David
