Get Shucked cultivates the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, which is native to the Pacific coast of Asia. Pacific oysters were first introduced to Tasmania in the 1940s, and while they’re not native to Tasmania, they’re often sold as Tasmanian oysters.
The true native Tasmanian oyster is called the Angasi, which aren’t as delicious as their Pacific cousins.
Oysters are bivalve molluscs, with two shells to protect their soft bodies. The shells are joined by a hinge and an adductor muscle, which holds the shells tightly together as soon as an oyster is removed from the water, either when the tide is low or when it’s harvested.
The stronger the adductor muscle, the longer the oyster will survive out of the water.
Oysters are filter feeders. They filter plankton using their gills, often filtering up to 30 litres of water per day.
Most oysters begin as male and change to female later in their life. When the water temperature is right (20°C +), when there’s a full moon and when there’s an outgoing tide, adult oysters spawn.
They shoot millions of eggs and sperm into the water – so many that the water looks like milk.
The baby oysters drift in the currents for three weeks until they become too heavy to float, usually when they’re about 7mm long. They then find something hard to attach themselves to and start growing. It takes the oyster spat between 18 months and four years to grow to harvestable size.
Our oysters are usually harvested at about two to three years of age. But if an oyster is left to grow, it can live for up to 30 years.
We have the shell of a 15 year old oyster on our counter. Make sure you check it out when you drop in.
