Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Q's for fresh seafood Xperts.

The ocean is loaded with bacteria and some of them are nasty for humans. Oysters grown in shallow warm waters with low salinity are apt to carry lots of bacteria. They are particulate filter feeders and will have bacteria inside as well as on the outer shell. Many states have health requirements on how to handle new harvested oysters when they are taken out of the water and delivered to a purchasing dealer.

Fresh oysters can be rinsed with a Clorox solution or 3% hydrogenperoxide to get rid of "most" of the outer shell but not all. What to do with left over live fresh oysters? Either covered with icecubes or in a container in a refrigerator will work to **reduce** bacterial growth but not stop their growth or kill them. You can reduce bacterial numbers on the outer shell but can do nothing about those inside the shell. So they need to be fresh and clean when purchased and handled going home.

japan has developed a technique that does a good job of killing outer bacteris and viruses outside and also inside. This technique will also make its way inside the oyster tissue and killing the inner tissue bacteria as well as virus. In fact Japan has switched from rinseing processed seafood from Clorox to this new thing called "Nanobubbles". This technique is not presently used in shellfish sanitation. The last I knew. I tend to ramble about some stuff.
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Older people who have some health conditions are deathly succeptable to one type of bacteria usually found in the warmer culturing areas down south. Most common bacteria that is managed for is called "Vibrio" though therre are numerous others.

But having said all this you should know that back in the late 1800s and on into the 1900s oysters were harvested, packed live in barrels and shipped all across the US of A. People who bought them in barrels put them in cellar storage rooms/areas. Common sense tells me that there was no where near the concern for bacteria as there is today. There may have been bacterial problems then but I've never run across any information about them.

So..... If you have kept the oysters in an ice cooler all day, replentishing the ice over night, that most likely will strongly reduce bacteria from increasing "much". They ought to be ok to ear for weeks if they are kept in the low 30s F.

Each state has marine departments that manage shellfish culturing and wild harvesting. There are university marine extension programs with people who ought to have or can direct you to where handiling and storage information of oysters for consumption are located.

DO NOT EAT RAW OYSTERS THAT HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO WARM AIR OVER NIGHT AND ON INTO THE AFTERNOON! They may or may not be healthy to eat raw but it is not worth testing them along with beer.

I want to let you know that what you hear about oysters being good for really enhancing your sex life is not true. Two weeks ago I had a dozen of them with some cold beer and only eight worked. :o)

Sam