Mystic festival makes the oyster your world
Stonington — Charles Larkin successfully defended his title as oyster shucking champion on Saturday at the Mystic River Oyster Festival at Mystic Seaport.
Larkin, of Mystic Oysters, shucked a dozen oysters in one minute, 45 seconds. "It’s pretty nuanced. It’s not as crude as it seems,” Larkin said, describing the skill. Judges added 4 seconds to his time for breaking a shell and for failing to completely separate one oyster from its shell, festival coordinator Rachel Thomas-Shapiro said.
Saturday's festival featured the shucking contest, local and regional oyster harvesters, and presentations and booths by environmental organizations like Connecticut Sea Grant, an environmental group funded by the state and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
Galina Braylyan traveled from the Waterbury area to attend the festival and ate three oysters from each purveyor at the festival, or about 18 oysters.
“They all tasted different. They all looked different,” she said. “They’re from different environments, so they’re probably different species.”
David Moore of Stonington watched the shucking contest. “It’s obviously an art form, you know what I mean? They’re very good at it,” he said. “It does look dangerous. And I wonder how they practice.”
Larkin shucked oysters at the Water Street Café for 12 years and at the Oyster Club for five years.
Rex Him of Fall River, Mass., has been shucking oysters for three years, and tried his hand at the contest. "I'm pretty sure I came in last, but it's all right," he said. "I finished strong."
The waters of Long Island Sound support oyster farming from Milford to Stonington, said Joe Dimaggio, director of member engagement at the Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound.
He offered summaries of the 2016 Long Island Sound Report Card, which graded water quality and the ecosystems of the Sound. The report gave the eastern narrows section of Long Island Sound a 93 percent out of 100, or an A- for water quality. Dimaggio said Save the Sound has begun water quality testing in bays and harbors off the Sound, an important step as oysters are raised along the shoreline.
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.
