Where have all the oysters gone?

By Roberto Garcia

BESIDES the famous bonuan bangus, Dagupan City is known for what sought-after seafood?

Oysters!

Yes, that mouth-watering, succulent bivalve was once cultured in the fertile riverine waters that also nourish the famed bangus. Years ago, locally-grown oysters were bestsellers together with bangus along makeshift stalls in Dawel and Tondaligan beach. Today there are still a number of oyster stalls by the Dawel bridge and at the market, but most of what they sell actually come from the neighboring coastal towns of Binmaley in the south or San Fabian in the north, or even as far as Anda and Bolinao in western Pangasinan.

So where are the local oysters? Well, they are still there growing wild along the rivers and inside the fishponds.

There are two major types: the larger Crassostrea iredalei, or what is locally known as talabang tsinelas, and the smaller species collectively called sisi. In a study (in which I participated) commissioned by the FAO/UNDP (Food and Agriculture Organization/United Nations Development Programme) in 1981, foreign experts observed that the local oysters were in “excellent condition with good appearance and flavor”. This became the basis for establishing a multi-million dollar world-class facility for research and development (where I was one of the pioneer researchers) for oyster culture and processing in Binloc, Dagupan in 1984. The goal was to develop a method of culturing and cleansing the local oysters similar to the Japanese technology and to eventually target the export market. The facility is now the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources center doing research and development for various other species aside from oysters.

What happened to the local oyster culture industry? According to some former growers, the area for culturing oysters were later occupied by fish pens and fish traps, especially along the Dawel and Salapingao area. Moreover, the oyster farmers presumably found other means of livelihood or were absorbed by the fish pen industry and the skill of culturing oyster was not passed to the next generation. Also, perhaps the proliferation of oysters coming from other coastal towns posed competition that depressed the market price and made oyster growing unprofitable.

What is the future for oyster farming in Dagupan? Oyster farming should be revived and developed to a higher level. There are techniques to grow oysters to palm size and clean them for the export market. Also, they should be grown in designated areas where waters are rich in nutrients and low in microbial contamination. If this should happen, Dagupan will regain its status as the prime source of large oysters in good condition and with excellent flavor.

I hope next time there will be a better answer to the question “Where have all our oysters gone?”

That would be: “Gone to markets everywhere!”

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