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Artwork: Ranger
Alf Smythers TO17
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Cornish Native Oysters gather 'Fal Oysters', which are thought to have been found since the earliest trading with the Phoenicians and were widely grown around the coast when the Romans occupied Britain. For hundreds of years they were seen as a food for the poor who would gather the plankton-feeding bivalves from the muddy banks of creeks and rivers at low tide. In 1298 they sold for 2d (less than 1p) a gallon and were cheap in comparison with other fish.
By the time Sir Richard Carew published the Survey of Cornwall in 1602, oysters were being caught using dredges “a thick strong net fastened to three spills of iron, and drawn to the boat’s stern, gathering whatsoever it meeteth lying in the bottom of the water, out of which, when it is taken up, they cull the oyster and cast away the residue, which they term gard, and serveth as a bed for the oysters to breed in.” In Carew’s time oysters were abundant around the Cornish shoreline, now they are only found in the Fal, Percuil, Helford, Fowey and Camel rivers; the Fal has the last wild oyster beds, in the other rivers both native and Pacific oysters are re-laid and farmed. The Fal Oysters are slow maturing, taking up to five years to grow to a marketable size, and is thought to have a far superior flavour to the faster growing Pacific oysters (crassostrea gigas also sometimes known as rock oysters).
http://www.england-in-particular.info/goods/g-case4-04.html
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Photo: Francis Monnier
Cornish Native Oysters served at The 'Front
Oyster 'Wink' 2009
(Serving Suggestion)
To celebrate the "Penny for the Grotta" or the start of the native oyster season,
Cornish Native Oysters had an 'Oyster Gathering' on the
13th-16th October 2011 at
The 'Front and Waterman's Gallery on
Customs House Quay
(below Trago Mills and Harbour Lights, Falmouth)
Download the postcard for the two annual events
in October and March
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BBC News
Biggest threat to the last fleet working under sail is
the planned Falmouth Marina & Cruise Liner Terminal for Falmouth Docks,
dredging 700,000 cu m of the most toxic substance ever
deliberately introduced into the marine environment, 24hrs
a day for 6 months...
BBC News Article - December 2010
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12031154
...Port company lied on toxic waste dumping while developing Falmouth Marina
The company behind a luxury yacht marina development in Cornwall has been ordered to pay more than £600,000 after lying about dredging toxic sediment and dumping it in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The deception was only spotted when an inspector from the Marine Fisheries Agency (MFA) visited the site and saw a digger at the wharves lowering a bucket into the water and shifting the silt.
The method was captured on video tape and condemned by Natural England as "the worst possible way" of moving toxic sediment around.
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Oyster Gatherers - Then & Now
A Shortfilm by Christopher Ranger & Dan Norman
... buy the Double Bill DVD
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Du Hag Owr - The Hera
New CD Now Available at the Online Shop or Direct from the bands website Includes 'Oystermen' and 'By The Glow of St Anthony's Light' Songs written for the Oyster Gatherers - Then & Now DVD...
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Buy your 'Cornish Native' t-shirts, hoodies and
Limited Edition Newlyn Fishermans Smocks
supporting 'Oysters From The Fal' also online
at the secure shop... while stocks last!
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