Are oysters and clams the same thing? Oyster harvest season and price introduction

After months of being nurtured by the sea, plump oysters have begun to be harvested in Budai and Dongshi in Chiayi, while the harvest in the Tainan production area is nearing its end. Currently, the farm-gate price in the Tainan and Chiayi areas is not much different from previous years, at about 110 to 130 yuan per kg. However, this year some oysters in the Tainan production area are smaller than in previous years, so those who like to eat their fill of oysters may have to wait a little longer for the harvest from other production areas.

Tsai Shang-hang of the Offshore Management Section of the Tainan City Fishing Port and Offshore Management Office said recently that this year's harvest, due to climatic conditions, has generally matured later than in previous years. However, because oysters that continue to be cultivated will not necessarily keep growing larger, some fishermen will harvest according to the climate and market prices, and some oysters will be relatively smaller. The Tainan production area includes Annan, Anping and the South District, with a total of 9,000 oyster racks, and the average annual output can reach about 5.7 tonnes.

In Chiayi County's Budai Township and Dongshi Township, another major domestic oyster production area, because stocking took place between November and December last year, harvesting began at the end of May and will continue all the way to August. Chen Hung-tsung, secretary-general of the Chiayi District Fishermen's Association, explained that the production season has only just begun, and the farm-gate price is about 130 yuan per kg. It will depend on whether there are typhoons in the coming 2 months, because the oyster racks in this production area are still mainly of the floating-raft type. If the cultivation area is in the open sea, it will be more affected by the weather, while the area near the inner sea and Waisanding Sandbar will be relatively less affected.

Chen Hung-tsung added that the Chiayi production area has about 9,000 floating-raft oyster racks, and there is also a production area with 780 hectares of horizontal-hanging oyster racks. However, because horizontal-hanging cultivation is carried out on shallow flats and relies on tides to replenish nutrients, the cultivation time is relatively longer, requiring nearly 1 year. Some farmers will move the oyster racks to floating-raft areas after 6 months of cultivation to increase the growth rate, but the harvest time will still be slightly later than that of floating-raft cultivation.

Domestic oyster farming is still mainly of the floating-raft type. Every typhoon season, oyster racks are blown apart, leading to controversy over floating polystyrene fragments polluting the ocean. Chen Hung-tsung said that oyster farmers usually wrap a piece of canvas around the polystyrene so that it will not crack from long-term sun exposure, but when a typhoon comes, even the bamboo frames are destroyed, let alone the floats. Although it is said that alternative materials exist, polystyrene is still a material that oyster farmers can obtain more easily. The Chiayi County Government now has a recycling mechanism for oyster racks, and it is hoped that the government can also provide alternative options for oyster farmers to use as soon as possible.