Oyster Ban Cost Them $1.5M, Vancouver Island Growers Say

The Island-based B.C. shellfish industry briefly celebrated the lifting of a raw oyster ban in Vancouver restaurants on Thursday. But the industry then settled into damage control as it tallied the cost of the month-long ban and potential damage to its reputation.

The B.C. Shellfish Growers Association said the ban, prompted by a bacteria caused by hot weather and warm water temperatures, cost oyster growers about $50,000 a day, or more than $1.5 million. Despite the ban being restricted to Greater Vancouver, word travelled abroad and likely hurt global sales.

“This is a huge loss to our industry and we hope we can recover,” Roberta Stevenson, executive director of the Comox-based B.C. Shellfish Growers Association, said Thursday. “It’s an industry made up of small family farms. They couldn’t sell anything for a month. No income. People were laid off. How do you make up for something like that? You don’t. You lose it.”

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