scary coincidence
When I learned about this movie, I had to share this story that ran last year (in The Star Review) on the Eastern Shore. Yes, I wrote the story, but the movie's premise struck a chord.
The Star Review, April 1, 2011
Oyster swarm threatens boaters
The oyster migration was especially heavy this year, and a researcher from the Maryland Division of Oysters and Such (MDOS) has warned sailboaters and small craft operators to stay off the water for at least another week.
"The state oyster lobby - Big Oyster - doesn't believe we should keep clear of the water," the researcher warned. "However, Big Oyster thinks the loss of three or four sailboats at the end of the migration is negligible when considering the massive amounts of money the tourists spend to watch the swarm."
Generally, the giant migration is over by April 1 each year, he added.
Long a staple of Public Television programming, the annual migration draws photographers and tourists from around the world. However, this year's oyster numbers are so high that the MDOS cannot guarantee the safety of the smaller boats.
"Did you see the movie 'Jaws' from back in the 1970s?" the researcher asked. "That's what it is. Big Oyster is like the town mayor who refuses to believe there's a danger."
Last year's migration was dimmed by the loss of one sailboat and its entire crew when more than 10,000 oysters attacked the boat, which came too close to the group of skittish bivalves. Before the boat could get away, the boat's hull had been destroyed and all crewmembers and passengers had been consumed.
"That was one of the worst oyster incidents in the last 30 years," the researcher said. "Of course, they were tourists, but then you'd expect those BBC documentary crews to know better."
The sad part about last year's oyster incident, the researcher continued, was that the film crew had just returned from filming a documentary about a rogue penguin colony in Alaska. "They just didn't realize that a cornered oyster - especially when there's 10,000 or so in the bunch - is faster and meaner than penguins could ever hope to be."
Sailors should keep at least 100 yards away from a bunch of oysters, and if an oyster lands on your boat's deck, you should turn away immediately before the oyster has time to return to release the "prey located" pheromone that will draw the rest of the bunch to the boat.
Long-time oystermen on the Bay are knowledgeable enough about the oyster's tendency to attack when threatened that they carry dredge baskets - you scoop up the first oysters to attack, spin the basket to confuse the bloodthirsty animals and throw them back into the water so the swarm will be discombobulated - or sets of oyster tongs, giant
rake-like tools, to keep the angry oysters at a safe distance before scraping them back into the Bay.
The annual spring oyster migration brings the oysters back to their birthplace; an oyster will return to within 30 yards of its actual birthplace when it is ready to spawn, which is why they are nicknamed "Chesapeake Bay Salmon."
After three months of gorging on whatever oysters gorge on, oysters collect near the shoreline to mate.
The female oyster then climbs on shore and ejects its fertilized eggs onto the tall grasses along the shoreline. "That's why they're called 'spat'," the researcher said.
After the spat have been spat, the female oyster retreats into the ocean; the autumn swarm back to the Atlantic Ocean isn't nearly as big a problem, since there aren't as many oysters. The male oyster doesn't return to the sea; he stays in the Bay to lurk offshore until January, when the spat fall off the grass and make their way to the water to the protection of their father.
The full-grown buck oysters feast on the spat, although they never eat their own young; how the oyster tells its own spat from others' is not known, although scientists suspect it depends on the buck oysters' well-developed eyesight.