From K-QED.

Oasters are a controversial food.

It is one of those foods that I feel like people shouldn't eat.

Every single time it reminds me of being congested

and having snot just slide down my throat.

I like that moment when you shove your blade into one you just kind of

pop it open just seems so savage. Especially paired with champagne,

outside, a picnic, shocking them yourselves.

Nothing better than that.

The Bay Area is known for great oysters,

but the thing is, you can't really eat oysters out of San Francisco Bay.

The local ones you see in restaurants are mostly grown up in Marin County.

Our question asker, Joseph Fletcher, heard this wasn't always the case and that people used to pluck oysters from right out of the bay.

Will oysters ever make a comeback in the bay and return to the numbers they had back in the days before the gold rush?

This week on the show we're tracing the history of oysters in San Francisco Bay.

Why they're so important to the ecosystem and how pirates figure into this story.

I'm Katrina Schwartz, and this is Bay Curious.

Support for Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,

still family owned, operated, and argued over.

Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold and taste how trailblazing runs in the family.

Visit Sierra Nevada.com to find your new favorite beer today.

Mm.

...