SHEDIACS SOON ?

Shucking a moist oyster of its succulent pearly flesh and slurping it down a slippery gullet was once common on the shores of Shediac Bay in New Brunswick. Shediac oysters were known as delicious throughout our Maritimes, until in the mid-1990s disease, water pollution and fishing methods combined to devastate the oyster stock. Programs are underway to restore this valuable mollusc to Shediac waters.

Oysters from Shediac, New Brunswick, suffered a few sea changes when subjected to the metamorphosis of pioneer spelling. Here's how the tasty molluscs saw print in 1835 in the pages of The Novascotian, a weekly published in Halifax: “Where have you been all your days, that you never heard of Shittyack Oysters — I thought everybody had heard of them.”

Shediac was named by the Mi-'Kmaq people from Micmac esedeiik ‘running far back,’ referring to the bay's indentation from Northumberland Strait .

The Shediac Bay Watershed Association Oyster Rehabilitation Project is a collaborative effort between the watershed association and the federal Department of Fisheries & Oceans. By 2003 they were reporting that their initial goal was to assess the growth and spawning potential of oysters in Shediac Bay. As the second phase of this project began, the group had applied for funding to create artificial reefs for oysters.

 

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