Traditional oyster fishing in England

Today, Atlantic oysters are an exclusive delicacy, brought fresh from the seabed to the dinner plate. In February, the Spotlight Food section travels to Falmouth, Cornwall, where you can still experience oysters being fished by hand, the traditional way.

Download: Meet the Cornish oyster

A historic documentary: Oyster fishing at Whitstable

Back in 1920, in the heyday of oyster fishing, most of the oysters eaten in London still came from the Atlantic. This silent documentary was shot in Whitstable, a seaside town known as the "Pearl of Kent" for its famous oysters. We see fishermen rowing their dinghies out to the oyster smacks, as the flat-bottomed fishing boats used for trawling are called. Many are wearing oilskins for protection against the elements, and all are in boots. Once all hands are on deck, each crew hoists the sails and sets off. They throw out dredges, or metal nets that scrape the oysters from the seabed, and then haul in their catch.

When they're done, they load their plunder into their tippy dinghies and row back to shore, where the shellfish are packed for delivery to London, to supply the finer restaurants. Back in London, the oysters are shucked, or pried open, at a restaurant, just before serving. We then see men feasting on oysters, sucking them off of the shell and washing them down with large quantities of champagne. The producer of this film, Charles Urban, was a great pioneer in documentary film-making. You can actually see him in the film, sampling the oysters, squatting on the shore on the right (minute 3:15).

Now that you've seen the film and read the description, let's review the words so you can describe how the oyster gets from the Atlantic to the tables of London.

Anne Hodgson