Are Oysters Dying Out?

No more oysters? Zut alors!

​Oysters can definitively be counted among Things San Franciscans Love. Whether opening our wallets for those tasty bivalves at the Ferry Building or taking a Zipcar up to Tomales Bay for a picnic of raw shellfish, we show our love for the oyster in countless ways.

So it may come as news of no small import to you, San Franciscan, that oysters are dying out.

A study performed by UC Santa Cruz and the Nature Conservancy has determined that 85 percent of oyster habitat worldwide has been lost. In four bays examined in California -- including San Francisco Bay -- oysters were determined to be "functionally extinct."

Now, there's no need for immediate alarm. Thriving aquaculture operations continue in Tomales Bay and Drakes Estero on the Marin County coast. Then again, the National Park Service is thinking about closing down the large Drakes Bay Oyster Company ...

Maybe there is cause for alarm.

Check out the study here.

via California Watch

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