Falmouth Oyster Gatherings & Seafood Harvest 2024

Aim

Help us fund a recovery of native oysters, and we will showcase our idea of a community 'oyster festival', that could save the industry too!

Fal Fishery Cooperative CIC presents

'Pop-Up Gatherings Oyster Trail & potentially a Custom House Quay Seafood Harvest' 

10th - 13th October 2024

(Click the blue text for links)

• Raise funds to recover the native oysters from the aquaculture research site
• ONLY sell oysters that have left more than one recruit (offspring)
• Weigh, grade and data analysis, of the growth and reproduction
• Wash, purify and pack for consumption on the Oyster Trail, in 4 weeks time
• Inspire venues to put our prized native oysters on their menu
• Support the Fal Fishery through education and policy review...

With news of the Falmouth Oyster Festival being postponed until 2025, due to organisers stating the 2024 event was "no longer financially viable”!, and the many recent enquiries as to whether I could "step up and provide the town with something?", I just wanted to express my shear gratitude for all the calls, messages and support I have had since the news, and say, well hell yeah, if we can raise some funds to support our work to save the Fal Fishery and host, or support, other businesses in and around Falmouth, then maybe we can also educate everyone about the fragility of the unique Fal Fishery, and its iconic sailing fishing fleet!

To get the Oyster Trail off the ground before the 10th October is going to be a push, but if we can secure some early sponsorship from local companies, then we can do it... Our target of £2,400 is just for one days oyster recovery with the charter vessels, we may need many more, we just don't know until we do one day, then if we can raise some funds through you the Crowd, we can deliver a great experience, not just for the visitors, but local businesses might start selling our prized native oysters all winter too, maybe even run parallel if the festival returns in 2025... who knows, but this is a do or die situation, let the crowd decide...

As in the intro film, The 'Front on, Custom House Quay, has hosted my Pop-Up Oyster Gathering since 2009, it is a 'fringe' event to the Falmouth Oyster Festival, as not all licensed oyster gatherers get the opportunity to sell their catch at the festival, and I feel the potential fundraising for the fishery is a massively missed opportunity... in fact only one or two oystermen supply the event, and sadly, I was assaulted by one of the oystermen, just for putting postcards advertising another oyster bar that same weekend, at the festival back in 2011, hence Annie's hesitation in naming me as winner, but I stand by my values, and this seems like a boom or bust situation for me, and the CIC...

In 2010, I started hosting an 'Oyster Gathering & Seafood Harvest' at the end of March, to celebrate the end of the oyster season, and these ran until the pandemic cancelled our last planned gathering in 2020, then in recent years I have been honoured to be the Oyster Bar at Rock Oyster Festival in July.

For me personally, with the festival at the very beginning of the oyster season, it is quite difficult to source enough native oysters and purify them for min 42hrs...

However, in 2022 the FalFisheryCooperativeCIC.org was awarded a grant from the Co-op Foundation's Round 1 of the Carbon Innovation Fund, and part of that funding was to purchase, weigh, store and study 'juveniles', that responsible gatherers have usually returned to the fishery, so they grow and reach maturity for the benefit of the fishery biomass, therefore we could potentially supply the whole town and surrounding area. From the SavingESTER project analysis we presented the first years data to the newly reformed Fal Fishery Management Committee (FFMC), who then successfully voted, with a majority, to propose an 'increase to the minimum landing size (MLS) from 67mm length to 72mm'. This proposal went through an informal then formal consultation with Cornwall IFCA and is currently somewhere on the desk of the new Secretary of State for Environment - Steve Reed MP, so we hope this campaign will nudge him to signing the first, industry led, increase to the MLS since 1924, yep 100years!!

From September 2024, we were looking to recover the native oysters from the aquaculture research site, which it self was part funded by you the Crowd via our SavingESTER campaigns, knowing they are 4yrs old and have liberated billions of larvae, we will sell the +75g to fund the costs of the recovery, but the cost of recovery far out ways the value of the oysters, so the news of the festival being cancelled, could have a big impact on the viability of this project too, which you can see from the photo below, taken in 2022, is no easy task... this is why we need to sell them at retail price for this weekend, but then we are all gathering again until March, so continued supply chain to venues is possible...

... do I just give up and walk away? not yet ...

No of course not yet, the shucking competition was won by 1 second, before penalties!!! 

But we need to act fast, raise significant funds to charter the vessel (£1,000+VAT per 4 hour charter, possibly +40hrs required), find '[email protected]' to help us weigh and grade the natives, analysing the growth and reproductive data, then wash and purify them, and find pubs restaurants cafes willing put the native oyster on the menu, or allow us to come and host a pop-up oyster bar in your business, find shuckers to help, with profits and donations going to the Fal Fishery Cooperative CIC, to support the newest skippers and crews, to campaign against the unlawful pollution of shellfish waters, and for projects such as ‘SavingSHADOW’ the oldest oyster boat, built in the 1870s, yep, 150yrs old......

I/We are by no means trying to compete, nor take over the festival, I have personally had enough hassle just for running an oyster bar in Falmouth on festival weekends. But we do feel the 'Falmouth' Oyster Festival should not rely on just one tent, which if closed suggests there is no festival, and no celebration of the unique native oyster in Falmouth. And we strongly believe that some of the income generated, by the Southwest's biggest festival, should go towards supporting the challenges facing the local oyster industry that it celebrates, even if it's just donations from the many visitors, but they should be more informed about the challenges, and choose what to support...

The cost of the rewards, such as the Pop-Up Oyster Bars, is mostly for staff wages, just as if you were paying a member of staff and donating sales for that weekend only, our oyster bars will pay staff above National Living Wage, £12ph, unless a shucker donates their time, we would supply chefs with minimum L2 food hygiene and professional shucking experience, and definitely bring oyster lovers to your venue to increase your sales... all subject to conditions, full refunds if 'we' cannot deliver...

If you or your business would like to sponsor the Falmouth Oyster Gatherings Trail, please get in touch via the comments page or email: [email protected]

Fal Fishery Cooperative CIC - Ethics & Sustainability Policy

Pop-Up Oyster Gatherings Trail 2024 Policy:

• MUST SUPPORT THE FISHERY AS ITS PRIMARY BENEFICIARY (INITIATED BY FFCCIC)
  
  The CIC has had some significant financial challenges in the past 5 years since incorporation, and we aren't out of the storm yet, but what we have achieved is priceless to the future of the iconic heritage industry, we would love your support going forward, and have trustee roles available, but we will only accept appointments when we have weathered the current financial storm...
  
  
• MUST EDUCATE THE VISITORS IN THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FAL FISHERY AND ENCOURAGE PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT (FFMC)
  
  Of course there is the glory associated with the iconic sailing fleet, and indeed the Falmouth Oyster Festival, but in reality the fishery has been in decline for a few decades now and I have been campaigning for change for more than a decade. 100yrs ago some 200 vessels landed 800 tonnes a season, 10 years ago around 20 vessels landed around 90t, and that dropped to around 12t from half a dozen or so boats.

This project closed unsuccessfully on 23rd September 2024