Georgia’s coastline is roughly a hundred miles long, pegged at the north by the Savannah River and to the south by the St. Mary’s. A series of barrier and coastal islands marks its length and protects an essential and pristine estuary from Atlantic waves. Between mainland bluffs and barrier islands is a salt marsh, the second largest in the United States, a maze where rivers and creeks skirt islets of mud and sand. Oysters thrive in such an estuary. These bivalve mollusks are ugly creatures. They grow in clusters and have razorsharp edges. They stretch heavenward like spires on a devilish cathedral. They’re as wild as their habitat. Restaurants rarely sell such unruly oysters. Riverside roasts, where oysters are steamed over fire, then shucked gleefully by eaters gathered around newspaper-covered tables, are their more common milieu. In the early 1900s, decades before the rise of the halfshell craze at urban raw bars, Georgia dominated the oyster industry in the United States. Back then, consumers ate tinned oysters by the ton. Canneries where freshlyharvested oysters were shucked and steamsealed into aluminum, and the lowslung sloops that dragged oysters from marsh to shore, provided hundreds of jobs in coastal communities. After World War II, industry growth ebbed. By the 1980s, oystering in Georgia had all but stopped as consumer tastes changed, Asian competition muscled in, and a cheap workforce jumped skiff for dependable wages in city trades. Only a handful of dedicated oystermen and their faithful but few customers endured. The rise of aquaculture—scientific shellfish farming—has revived long dormant oyster fisheries in Virginia, Alabama, the Northeast, and the West Coast in the last twenty years. But, until very recently, innovation had left Georgia behind. Change is coming slowly to this state.

中文翻译：

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佐治亚州的野生牡蛎收获

佐治亚州的海岸线大约有一百英里长，北边是萨凡纳河，南边是圣玛丽河。一系列屏障和沿海岛屿标志着它的长度，并保护重要而原始的河口免受大西洋海浪的影响。在大陆峭壁和障壁岛之间是盐沼，这是美国第二大盐沼，是一个迷宫，河流和小溪环绕着泥沙小岛。牡蛎在这样的河口茁壮成长。这些双壳类软体动物是丑陋的生物。它们成簇生长，边缘锋利。它们像恶魔般的大教堂上的尖顶一样向天延伸。它们和它们的栖息地一样狂野。餐馆很少出售这种不守规矩的牡蛎。河滨烤肉，牡蛎在火上蒸，然后被围在报纸覆盖的桌子周围的食客兴高采烈地剥壳，是它们更常见的环境。在 1900 年代初期，也就是在城市生酒吧的半壳热潮兴起之前的几十年，佐治亚州主导了美国的牡蛎产业。当时，消费者按吨吃罐装牡蛎。将新鲜收获的牡蛎去壳并用蒸汽密封成铝的罐头厂，以及将牡蛎从沼泽拖到岸边的低速单桅帆船，为沿海社区提供了数百个工作岗位。二战后，工业增长放缓。到 1980 年代，随着消费者口味的变化、亚洲竞争的加剧以及廉价劳动力跳槽到城市贸易中获得可靠的工资，佐治亚州的牡蛎养殖几乎停止了。只有少数敬业的牡蛎和他们忠实的但很少有顾客忍受。水产养殖的兴起——科学的贝类养殖——使弗吉尼亚州、阿拉巴马州、东北部、和过去二十年的西海岸。但是，直到最近，创新才让格鲁吉亚落后。这种状态正在慢慢发生变化。