My World is My Oyster
We are witnessing a “seafood craze” sweeping across the globe. Fuelled partly by cable food networks and social media trends, the global seafood market has experienced notable shifts in consumption patterns and production dynamics over the past decade. Per capita fish and seafood consumption has risen steadily from an average of 18.67 kg in 2010 to approximately 20.45 kg by 2020-2022 globally and oysters are a component of the seafood industry.
Widely eaten as delicacies in France, United States, Canada and Asia, oyster bars are popping up and spreading across the globe. In fact, the Matunuck Oyster Bar in Rhode Island was named USA Today’s best restaurant in 2025.
At home in Trinidad and Tobago, raw oysters are a popular street food delicacy, often served up with lime, local seasonings and of course, pepper by roadside vendors. Oysters can also be occasionally found in some restaurants and are increasingly sold in speciality seafood shops. Most of the oysters collected are the mangrove tree oyster, Crassostrea rhizophorae and the limited collection of another much larger oyster whose nomenclature still has to be confirmed, but may be Crassostrea virginicaare.
The Institute of Marine Affairs has just started a new project to culture oysters in Trinidad. The main goal of this project is to revitalise and promote the sustainable development of the oyster industry through the production and culture of culthless (unattached) oysters using land-based marine recirculation systems. This project also aims to build partnerships and collaboration with oyster industry stakeholders and other entrepreneurs. The project will be built around a proof of concept (POC) model which could be readily adapted and scaled accordingly by resource users, community-based groups or entrepreneurs as well as interested nationals.
Besides being harvested for food, oysters play a critical role in their ecosystems. They clean and filter water. Studies have demonstrated that an adult oyster can clean as much as 50 gallons of water per day.