Would u dare eat um

[jdc]

The pacific oyster and the native oyster aren't quite the same. Here on the Fal I eat native oysters I have found at LWS, provided that there hasn't been a serious rain storm recently. Pacific oysters I would always cook, but don't usually bother collecting them as they're huge, flabby and relatively tasteless.

A point about the rules here: the fisheries officer will stop you as a mere member of the public and forbid you to collect oysters of any sort, even the worthless and invasive pacific ones. Last time I had such a conversation with him, just beside us were 'professionals' taking barrow-loads as we talked, but he was adamant that I was to have none. It smells of a local mafia scam since I would only collect any once or twice a year and never more than 6 at a time so pose no additional threat to the population.

 

[MOBY2]

DO NOT EAT THEM .... As said purification is needed, I used to dredge oysters in Chichester many years ago, a fellow fisherman ate one raw and it nearly killed him, very I'll for a couple of weeks.

 

[Greemble]

UV treated! Ha! What price artificially 'processed" food, eh?
You'd never sell them at all if you let on they'd been irradiated!

UV is not irradiating - very different things

 

[Keith 66]

Loads of pacific oysters off the Southend shore where commercial picking is rife though Southend council tries to keep a lid on it. It is legal to collect for your own consumption but not for sale. No way would i eat them from there with the sewage discharges.
My wife used to work at Southend council (food safety) & i accompanied her on several patrols, interesting stuff.
Loads of them on the Medway, (Pacific), We have eaten them cooked but would never eat them raw.
Some years ago My wife had a food poisoning case with a gentleman who had visited Chatham marina, He had picked a large number of Mussels off one of the caisons in the dock. He got a bad dose of Salmonella & Campylabacter, basically turned himself inside out for a couple of weeks.
Oysters, Mussels are filter feeders & get full of whatever is in the water.