Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / Sept. 3, 1987, edition 1 / Page 40
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Poge 4—Supplement to The Brunswick Beacon. September-October. 1987 Popular Oysters Have A Rocky, Risky Life BY MARJORIE MEGIVERN A lu.strous. perfect pearl and a par ticular juicy seafood morsel have much in conmion. You might say they’re kinfolks, as they come from the same home: an ugly, craggy- surfaced shell found in .shallow ocean and river waters, whose life is precarious from beginning to end. In this area, it’s the edible quality we admire. The oyster is a favorite food along the coast and once upon a time a big business in Brunswick ('ounty. 1-loyd Milliken, who operates a shucking house in Shallotte Point, remembers when he picked them up by the hundreds from the Shallotte River that runs behind his business. "Now I have to get most of them from Florida and Ixiuisiana." he said, "Until last winter, I hadn’t used any of our local oysters for ten years.” What’s happened to the beloved oyster and what is its history? There is a certain mystique in this gray- black bivalve whose hard, rough shell hides delicacies to eat or to wear. The creature dates back to prehistoric times, as great shell mounds have been found in all coastal regions, indicating the impor tance of oysters in the diet of early man. Romans imported English oysters in the 18th and 19th centuries, as British beds were the most produc tive in Europe. Oysters was the poor man’s diet. This European flat oyster has two untidy shells or valves, one conve.x. one flat, hinged together by an elastic ligament. 'I'he irregular outline is made even more so by encrusting animals that grow on the shells. Look between these valves and you’ll see the edges of the mantle, a living tissue that secretes the inside of the shell. Its edge has a muscular fold that brings in a flow of water, whose nutrients feed the oyster. Attached to a rock or another oyster .shell (or “spat,”) in shallow water, the oyster draws in two to three gallons of water per hour, filtering out the food particles. In summer spawning or reproduc tion takes place, with eggs passing through the oyster’s two double gills, then being fertilized by sperm car ls Published As A Supplement To THE BRUI\l$WiCK|^BEACON SHALLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Stcsff: Edword AA & Carolyn H. Sweatt Edword M Sweoll AAor|Orie Mogivern Chrislino A Ballou Cecelia Gore & Suson Barefoot Tommie Gollowoy & Dorothy Brennon Robert Williams Lonnie Sprinkle Brenda Clemmons Cover Design by Roy Culln Publishers Editor Associole Editor Office Manoger Advertising Representatives Typesetters Pressmon Assistant Pressman Photo Technician Gifts • Pottery • Baskets •Jewelry Country Crafts*Door Wreaths & Arrangements I (pre-made or made-to-order) I Artists’ Oils and Supplies I BRUNSWICK HAUS GIFT SHOP Brunswick Square Village. S Main St . Shallotte Phone 754-81 1 1 LOOK FOR THE SIGN OF THE RED LION PILEIS OF OYSTER SHELLS are mounded behind Lloyd’s Oyster House in Shallotte Point. They are StAf F PHOIO BV MARJORIE MEGIVIRN .Shoveled onto a barge and replanted in the Shallotte River, so that new oyster larvae can attach to them. Tied in by the current. Some varieties are hermaphroditic, changing sexes to fertilize their own eggs within the shell. In the latter case, eight days after fertilization the shell opens wide and closes violently at invervals, each time expelling clouds of larvae, numbering up to 100 million. Fewer than one percent of these larvae survive, as most are consum ed by fish and other animals. They spend two weeks as part of the ocean’s plankton, the larvae chang ing into two-shelled mollusks and descending to the bottom where they -1W THE BRUNSWICK BEACON attach to a hard, clean surface, often an adult shell. As many as 1,000 tiny oysters or spat may cling to one of these shells. life isn’t much more secure for the one percent who make it to the bot tom. Oysters, as they mature, are constantly endangered by the oyster drill, boring sponge, snails, and varieties of crabs that attack its shell in various ways. The survivors grow to become 2-6 inches in length. In warmer waters they mature within 18 months; cooler waters slow down maturation to 4-5 years. Spawned in summer, then, an oyster can be harvested as an adult, fit for a seafood-lover’s palate bet ween October and April. Meanwhile, their tropical relatives, the pinctata are sought out for the lovely white pearls they have produced through repeated secretion of the mantle around a grain of sand or other foreign matter from the sea. These valuable natural pearls are found largely in the Persian Gulf and in some North American rivers. Pearls are also cultivated for mass production by placing small mother- (See TWO ANNUAL, Page 6) 'M: Oyster Bay This spacious home at Oyster Bnu ic rr. „ » j tracoastal Waterway, lakes and golf courses''TBR° T K room with wet bar, glassed-in Carolina room paneled rec features include a "library” balcony overlookinnT' g°'’age. Custom y °''®'^'ookmg living room. $ 138,500. WKJ.KKNhS: ^75 TradePiVniaKo.Cnlaba.sh l*hiini> lQiqiS7».14KS iti lA-McIlyn, Rrnker iir> ('. .Allen. Hriikrr nr .S7!t-fi061
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 3, 1987, edition 1
40
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