Seafood

Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas JULY. 16, 2021

Further down the creek when the tide is out you can see the remains of what was a small oyster farming set up. I think it closed only a few years ago because of strict water requirements. Although the creek and our village are in an AONB, an area of outstanding natural beauty, the fact remains that the inhabitants of the area are still fairly remote here from main services. This means for example if there is a heavy rain, nearly all run off from the villages ends up in the creek as there is no system of removing rainfall from the area other than it flowing into the creek.

So if people spill liquids anywhere outside, or use chemicals in their garden or wash their cars, or farmers have certain practices, ultimately all of that will go into the ground or run into water courses.

So although the water at high tide is probably 99.999% fresh sea water rushing in from the open sea twice a day it was considered too risky to grow oysters in the sheltered creek. I suspect this is what us sceptics refer to as "elf an safety gon mad" or health and safety rules that are not made in the real world.

You can swim in the creek and many people catch fish in the creek, but you cannot grow oysters in the creek.

The creek is teeming with wildlife. Several species of fish and shellfish, a huge variety of birds, many feeding off those fish and every sort of wild animal you would expect. The whole of the animal world thrives here and the human population is low, but to us it is all highly dangerous and must be avoided at all costs. No more local oysters. We'll import them from somewhere else or grow them in tanks in a warehouse, much safer.