The State - News from July 31, 1988

There is a decline in oyster quality this summer in Northern California, and like so many other things, the decline is being blamed on unseasonably warm, dry weather. Bill Wilson of the Tomales Bay Oyster Co. says the unusually warm water temperature in the Marin County bay is over-stimulating the oysters’ libidos, and causing a reduction in their weight and taste. “Oysters naturally need relatively cold water to taste good,” Wilson explained. “As the water gets warmer, the little buggers want to spawn,” he continued. “All that sexual energy robs them of their meat, their weight and they become these little scrawny things.”