July 14, 2008: Mais non non!

Strange happenings in the world of oyster aquaculture: 1. Today's LA Times ran an article about the West Coast's V. tubiashii outbreak that is worth reading. Among other interesting things we learned from the article: the fact that the bacteria can be wind-dispersed, "launched into the air by bubbles bursting at the ocean's surface." 2. Turmoil in the French oyster industry. Something (a virus? warm water temperatures?) is killing juvenile oysters in France, which is the fourth-largest oyster producer in the world, behind China, Japan, and South Korea. Some farmers have lost between 40 to 100 percent of their oysters aged 1 to 2 years.