The oysters are back, feeling better and have had time to do whatever it is that oysters do to repopulate their mollusk nation.
It took more than a decade, but Greenwich's oyster beds have recovered from diseases that nearly wiped them out in the late 1990s.
Greenwich Cove and other parts of Long Island Sound were hit in 1997 and 1998 by two diseases that killed most of the region's oysters.
In the last 10 years, officials worked their magic to provide those randy disease-resistant mollusks with an environment where they were comfortable enough to reproduce and grow to the point where oyster fisherman can scoop them up again. The head of the town's Shellfish Commission says Greenwich Cove's oyster beds may be ready to reopen this spring on a limited basis for recreational fishing.
Greenwich officials considered reopening the oyster beds last year, but decided to wait after some oysters near shore died during an ice storm that coincided with low tide.
While the beds will be open, this might actually might be a good time for the oysters since fewer people are spending on luxuries.
Next step for the oysters: They’ll be shipped off to raw bars, where well-funded oyster lovers will shell out cash and slurp them down, become randy themselves and perhaps create another generation of think-walleted oyster lovers. They are aphrodisiacs after all.
