Quake dashes French bid to halt oyster blight

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http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110519n1.html

A deadly virus is stalking France's coastline, killing at least 60 percent of the young oysters there since 2008. Japan's earthquake and tsunami may have wiped out the latest rescue plan.

The March 11 natural disasters destroyed the fishing industry in Miyagi Prefecture, which produced 80 percent of Japan's oyster seeds in 2009. That is forcing France to abandon plans to import and breed Miyagi's Pacific oyster species, and find another solution for diners seeing fewer, and more costly, options.

The French eat about 108,000 metric tons of the mollusks, typically on the half-shell atop a bed of ice and garnished with a squeeze of lemon or splash of vinegar. Domestic production fell 38 percent last year, driving up wholesale prices 20 percent. Some brasseries in Paris sell the largest oysters for ?6.5 ($9.28) apiece.

"This delays our exit from the crisis," Maryline Maingam, a spokeswoman for France's National Shellfish Committee, said in an interview. "There will still be oysters, but a lot less than before. For the next two years, we'll have 40 percent to 50 percent production losses."