Oyster processing by Leavins Seafood

Darren, the foreman,decided to educate us ignorant northerners about oyster fishing since we were so fascinated by the shells piling up   outside of the warehouse from the auger

It's illegal to dredge for oysters unless you own the land under the river.  Leavins Seafood owns some but in Louisiana it's permissible to dredge so they get 100# bags of oysters that were in LA yesterday.  He said BP ruined the workforce after Katrina cuz it made millionaires out of people so they don't have to work.

First the oysters are power washed outside on the dock to remove sand and mud.
Shucking is done by hand.  Here's the shuckers above.  34 people work here. They get paid $9/gallon and they can do $1-2 gallons an hour and make $800-$1000/week.  The shells drop down under their work station and a conveyor belt  augers them outside in a pile.  Shells will become gravel,more than likely.

Once out of the shell,they are power washed in the stainless steel trays and he sorts into the stainless steel pan which are then dumped into huge vats of water.  We didn't see what the next step was (how packaged) for oysters out of the shell,but they are shipped out to restaurants by the next day.  Darren invited us to see the flash frozen oysters on the half shell process.across the street but it was lunchtime.

Usually after butchering chickens, you can't eat one for a week.  This process didn't bother Mike at all as we went directly to the Boss Oyster restaurant for lunch.