Shell Game

A DOZEN TWISTS OF A KNIFE were all it took to tarnish the unblemished reputation of Washington’s oysters. It was 2017, and Teri King, an aquaculture specialist for Washington Sea Grant, a marine research institute, had been invited to shuck shellfish at a seafood event in Shelton, Washington. She was there to teach people about the local oyster industry, which is prized for producing delicious half-shells with perfect, pearly white interiors. But her lesson soon took a dark turn. As she wedged her knife under the lip of an oyster, it split a hidden blister inside the shell.

King watched in disbelief as black ooze bled into raw meat. “I don’t know what’s happening here,” she remembers telling her audience. “But let’s find you some better oysters.” To her embarrassment, it kept happening. It took 13 or 14 oysters before she finally produced a presentable half-shell. King had occasionally noticed these blisters