Police on alert as oyster rustlers hit local seasonal treat

Sydney

Fifty years ago, a Sydney Christmas involved midnight Mass, a roast turkey and maybe a swim at Bondi Beach. Today, the most important pilgrimage Sydneysiders make isn't to church, but to the fish market in Pyrmont.

Indeed, Sydney's appetite for seafood is insatiable. Last year, the fish market, a squalid set of buildings next to a busy flyover, sold A$93 million (HK$623.5 million) worth of seafood. Things move into overdrive at Christmas. Last year, when the market stayed open for 36 hours on December 23-24, 80,000 people crowded into the markets to stock up on prawns, lobster, tuna, snapper and, most important of all, oysters.

But the Christmas supply of the native Sydney rock oyster (grown all along the New South Wales coast) is being threatened by gangs of ruthless mollusc thieves, known in Australia as 'oyster rustlers'.

Police estimate thieves made off with at least 55,000 oysters last year, and they expect the problem to escalate during the current harvesting season.

Thefts usually occur at night, when the rustlers use boats to target remote oyster leases - well away from prying eyes. The stolen molluscs are then sold in pubs or at roadside stalls; some are apparently making their way on to Sydney restaurant tables.

Growers say that over the past five years, oyster-rustling has escalated from small-scale pilfering to a major threat to the industry. Noel Baggaley, a grower from Brunswick Heads, estimates that he lost A$20,000 worth of oysters to thieves last year alone. 'It obviously puts a very sour taste in your mouth,' he said.