Wadden Sea banks brim with free Pacific oysters

Pacific oysters are once again abundant on banks in the Wadden Sea, where they can be collected for free between Vester Vedsted and Mandø, DR reports.

The oyster banks can stretch for several hundred metres, but reaching them can mean crossing 50 metres of mud and wading another two kilometres. The banks lie about 30 centimetres below the surface, so collecting is only possible when the tide allows it.

Many people are taking a day off during the autumn holiday to gather oysters. Thomas Höhndorf travelled from Slagelse with a cooler, hoping to collect enough for 10 days. The trip was a birthday gift he had waited three years to take.

The Wadden Sea Centre has organised guided autumn-holiday trips called “Oysters and campfire”. Anita Lousdal, a biologist and nature guide at the centre, advises against collecting oysters in the Wadden Sea without a guide. Mud can trap people, and fog can make it easy to lose one’s way.

Collectors should also check that oysters are safe to eat. A rule of thumb is to gather them only in months containing the letter “r” in Danish, from September to April, preferably after October, when the water is less likely to be warm and bacteria-filled. Oysters should be closed before they are opened and smelled; a bad oyster should be easy to detect by its smell, Lousdal says.

The oysters in the Wadden Sea are Pacific oysters, introduced to Europe from Japan in the 1960s. They replaced the European oyster, which is no longer found in the Wadden Sea. Lousdal says their numbers have grown dramatically because they have few competitors there, apart from people who eat them. Pacific oysters are also found in parts of the Limfjord, Horsens Fjord and Isefjord.