Oyster Festival 2004

The Annual Oyster Festival is a popular event with lovers of the humble mollusc and visitors looking for a fun day out and is held in Hope Square just off the Old Harbour.

This year the event will be held on Sunday 30th May when the Pacific oysters will be at their peak from the oyster beds in the Fleet.

There will also be live music provided by Dr Stomp, oyster eating competitions, a whole range of food and charity stalls, Weymouth's farmers market and Jonathon the Jester to entertain the crowds.

The oysters are grown by Abbotsbury Oyster Farm in the Fleet off Portland harbour, which has a long association with oysters.

The Fleet Lagoon is some 3,000 acres and has been 'a reserve' since the 11th Century making it the oldest in Britain. It is believed oysters were inhabiting the Fleet nearly 10,000 years ago when the lagoon was just forming. Evidence of this can be found in fossilised shells on the shore of the east side of the Fleet.

It is known that the Romans farmed oysters in Britain and transported them ( in brine) back to Rome but history doesn't relate if oysters were farmed in the Fleet and marketed before 1743, when a Captain Lyle was recorded growing the European 'flat' oyster on the seabed.

Farming fell into decline after a Fever Isolation Hospital was built at FerryBridge in 1880. The oysters grown in the polluted Fleet waters were then considered unfit for human consumption.

Then in the 1970's, spurred on by history and the Fleet's unique properties, it was suggested oysters could again be grown in the Fleet. With its clean water and abundant plankton, the Fleet contains the ideal ingredients for successful farming of oysters.

A new venture was started in 1990 growing the Pacific oyster. The Pacific oyster is a native of Japan and is now commonly farmed around the world. It is far more robust than the Native 'flat' oyster and grows faster. It is also not susceptible to the Bonamia parasite that has so devastated the wild native flat oyster fisheries.

The Pacific oyster is farmed in the Fleet to this day and available at the festival.