New website dedicated to oysters in Alabama
Oysters Alabama is dedicated to the marketing of oysters grown or harvested in Alabama and the growth and development of this coastal industry.
Published On: 04.25.22 |
By: Dennis Washington
Alabama’s oysters have a new fan page.
OystersAlabama.com is a website recently developed by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) to promote oysters raised and farmed in the waters of coastal Alabama. Henry Perkins, business resource manager for MBNEP, says the website was designed to grow Alabama’s oyster farming industry.
“There wasn’t anything specifically to promote oysters themselves, which is a hole that needed to be filled,” he said. “There’s plenty of restaurants down here on the coast that are serving oysters and there’s plenty of people going to the store to buy oysters, but there is not a lot of knowledge at that kind of base level about where those oysters are coming from.”
OystersAlabama.com features a list of Alabama oyster farms as well as wholesale processors and distributors who carry aquaculture-raised Alabama oysters. Perkins said providing this information in one online location makes it easy for restaurants and stores to find local oysters.
“The purpose is to link wholesalers and retailers to the sources so they know who to ask for and what to get,” Perkins said. “It’s here to just feature some of the farms, to feature some of the wild catchers and to encourage folks to go out to a restaurant, order oysters and ask your waiter where they come from.”
Perkins said he’s had more than a half-dozen distributors reach out to him since the website launched earlier this year, asking him to connect them with Alabama oyster farmers. He hopes the website will continue to grow demand for Alabama oysters.
“I would like to see people use this website as a launching point for all things oyster,” Perkins said. “I would like to see a general appreciation for this high-quality, ecologically-friendly protein that we are creating, that is filtering our waters, protecting our shorelines and is really great to eat.”
