Shucks! Oyster raid puts new festival in jeopardy
THEY are the oldest oyster firm in Scotland, catching and storing their haul in the same way for more than 300 years.
But the fishermen of Loch Ryan have been dealt a blow after thieves snatched 2,000 of the molluscs from this year’s harvest.
Police were called to Stranraer, Wigtownshire, after seven bags of the delicacies – weighing in total a quarter of a ton – were stolen from the beach.
The ten-year-old oysters, valued at £2,000, had been collected ahead of the first Stranraer Oyster Festival. Organiser Tristan Hugh-Jones, manager of the Loch Ryan Oyster Company, described the theft as the largest in living memory and a ‘significant blow’ to next month’s food event.
He said: ‘We’ve never experienced a theft of this scale. Because of the food festival we started fishing a little bit earlier, so there were more oysters on the shoreline.
‘Stranraer is a small place and everyone knows the oysters are there so we believe they were targeted at low tide when they were exposed on the beach.
‘The haul was stored in seven plastic net bags and weighs about a quarter of a ton, so you would need a vehicle to move them.’
Mr Hugh-Jones, 44, who has worked on the water for 20 years, explained Loch Ryan was the only remaining bed for native oysters in Scotland.
He said: ‘They are much rarer than the rock oysters you find elsewhere, look different and they are also much older and more valuable, so anyone trying to sell them is going to stand out.’
It is thought the bags were taken between August 18 and 20.
But the crime was not reported to police until Tuesday last week when the fishermen noticed they were missing.
The festival is being held from September 15 to 17, celebrating the area’s produce and coastal heritage – including the oyster beds which date back to 1701.
Mr Hugh-Jones, whose company collects a quarter of a million native oysters from the loch every year, said: ‘We are now having to work around the clock to make up for the loss.
‘That number of oysters usually takes at least a few days to catch so we are now behind.
‘We have always stored the oysters on the beach because that’s where the oysters like to be.
‘But following the theft we have to rethink how we do it and move the haul further out into the water. My hope is we find out who the thieves are so we can avoid that.
‘Oysters are living creatures so you have to be very careful how they are handled.’
Mr Hugh-Jones said the molluscs would survive out of water for up to five days but believes the thieves will try to sell them locally in time for the food festival.
He said: ‘A lot of effort has gone into this food festival. It has been years in the planning and is the first one.
‘So it’s very disappointing that someone could do this after all that hard work.’
He added that such a large quantity of oysters would stand out if someone tried to sell them on and would also be noticeable without the proper documentation.
As a result of the native oysters’ rarity, they are usually more expensive and are considered to be a delicacy.
A spokesman for the Stranraer Oyster Festival said: ‘We are shocked at the theft of a large number of Loch Ryan oysters and devastated at the callous timing.’
Police Scotland confirmed that it was investigating a report of oysters being stolen in Stranraer.’
‘Disappointing after all the hard work’