Today was the annual Oyster Festival in Bluff, Southland. More than 4,000 people attended to eat oysters – raw or cooked – and to watch competitions: to see how fast someone can open 50 oysters or how fast someone can open and eat 6 oysters. Bluff oysters are bivalves (have 2 shells). You need skill and a special knife to open them. The record for opening 50 oysters is just under 2 and a half minutes.
Bluff is 30km from Invercargill, in the far south of the South Island. Fishing boats leave Bluff harbour to dredge for oysters in Foveaux Strait, between the South Island and Stewart Island. These oysters are dredged from the sea floor by a boat. A dredge is a large net made of metal. The oyster season starts March 1st and finishes in August. In that time, fishermen are allowed to collect 12 million oysters. These are sent all over New Zealand to fish shops, supermarkets, restaurants and fish and chip shops. Raw oysters cost about $2 each. Most oyster-lovers think Bluff oysters are the best.
Many years ago, fishermen used to collect 82 million oysters each year but in 1986, a disease killed many Bluff oysters. From 1991 to 1994, there was no oyster fishing. Now the numbers are starting to increase again but there is a quota to make sure that oysters will return to a healthy number again.
Vocabulary
• annual – every year
• record – the fastest
• to dredge – to scoop up
• Strait – sea between two islands
• quota – maximum number they can collect