Oyster farming is a fairly common primary industry within Taijian National Park, an embodiment of the old saying that “Those living near the sea live off the sea”. Oysters are quite a delicious fishery product, such as oyster omelette, oyster fritter, and deep fried oyster, all of which are delicious oyster dishes in the coastal areas.
However, oyster farming is quite cumbersome and requires strict adherence to various procedures; in other words, it requires “the right time”, “the right place”, and “the right people”. It is a trade that is entirely at the mercy of the weather. The traditional way of oyster farming starts with putting strings of oyster shells in water so that seed oysters can set; sorting seed oysters; hanging oyster racks; and patrolling for seed oysters. Between July and August every year oyster farmers in Taijian begin dipping oyster cultch in water for seed oysters to attach; after 20 days or so, they move the strings of shells with a seed oyster set to their oyster fields. Oyster fields in Qigu district in Taijian mostly lie around Qigu Lagoon and wider ditches between fish farms where the waters are relatively calm, whereas oyster fields in Annan district and Sicao area in Taijian sit offshore where heavy wind and high tide are common. The manner in which oyster racks are hung, e.g., “floating rack”, “upright rack”, and “cradle rack”, depends on the water depth. Each long string of oysters has about 9-12 small piles, and it takes about 8-12 months to rear oysters in the Tainan area. Although oysters can be harvested throughout the year, the ideal harvesting periods in Taijian National Park and Qigu Dist. are the period between July and September and the period between December and February. After the strings of oysters are brought ashore, it requires immense manpower to shuck them. That is the time you see a group of elders aged nearly 1,000 in total stooping and working together. Oyster farming requires immense manpower and little machine power. Nowadays if you meet a random fisherman in fishing villages around Taijian National Park chances are high that he’s over 60. According to a survey, Taiwan will enter the super-aged society by 2025, not earlier than the fishing villages do though. It’s an important issue as to how to make the young and middle-aged generation willing to stay in fishing villages and engage in oyster farming, and how to make the delicious ingredient stay.
According to the Fisheries Statistical Yearbook of the Fisheries Agency, oyster faming area in Tainan was 1868 hectares in 2018, accounting for 22% of the national total; it was 1,671 hectares in 2019, 21% of the national total. The statistics indicate an oyster farming area retreating year by year, which is mainly caused by the lack of participating new blood. The small fishing boat loaded with oysters at the fiery sunset and the elderly couple next to the oyster racks laboriously tyeing strings of shells for seed oysters to set are probably the most beautiful scenery in Taijian; just how long will it take for such beautiful scenery to disappear?