September 25, 2024 โ Day after day, the piles of shucked shells slowly become tiny mountains behind Bluffton Oyster Co., a gray clapboard shack where a crew of fast hands pries away at oysters and crabs, a bounty bound for local markets and eateries.
In many ways, Blufftonโs May River waterfront here is a throwback to bygone days when local fishermen and fish houses provided most of Americaโs seafood. Now, like a pearl inside an oyster, the smooth, shiny prospect of renewal โ of sustainability and food self-sufficiency โ awaits discovery.
Helming the charge for renewal is Bluffton, South Carolinaโs new Mayor Larry Toomer, the oyster shackโs owner, who sees as his mandate preserving and linking a working waterfront to the regionโs growing suburbs. Why does this gambit matter beyond Americaโs Low Country? Because the seafood unloaded here plays a crucial role in the nationโs health and security, Mayor Toomer says.
โI used to think nuclear war was our biggest threat,โ he says. โNow I think itโs our ability to feed ourselves if something goes wrong.โ
Aside from coastal recreational opportunities, Americans have become largely disconnected from the oceanโs riches. In fact, the United States is the worldโs second-biggest commercial fishery. But the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health doesnโt even mention seafood as an asset.
Experts say that โblue foodโ isnโt a part of a broader conversation about Americaโs food security or food system transformation largely because of a common public perception that fish, oysters, and shrimp are a luxury, not a necessity. At the same time, the gap between fish catchers and fish eaters โ no more โmy neighbor is a shrimperโ โ has widened.
The challenge, says Mayor Toomer, is a sense among local fishers that โweโve basically been left to dieโ even as seafood consumption has risen from 12 pounds to 20 pounds per capita in the past 30 years.