[dstainer]

Slightly off topic, however, the post references the Carlsbad desalination facility. If you find yourself in San Diego and like oysters, I would highly recommend you checkout the Carlsbad Aquafarm. Take the tour and pick up some oysters.

What's really interesting and relevant to the topic is that the oyster farm serves as a pre-filter to the desalination plant and there's an symbiotic relationship between the plant and the oyster farm.

[aeonsky]

Pick up some oysters, for eating? If these oysters serve as a pre-filter for the plant, would you not want to eat them as these oysters would contain all sorts of pollution?

[js2]

They clean the oysters before selling them:

> This was the first oyster farm to feature an inventive “depuration and purification” process, which involves immersing the oysters in triple-filtered seawater once they reach full size. This ensures that the oysters are a completely safe, top-quality delicious shellfish product.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/10best/2022/08/04/how-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depuration

TIL.

[xigency]

That’s a really convoluted way to say they rinse them off in clean water.

Anyway, seafood comes from the ocean. I don’t see why they would be worse than other oysters.

[js2]

> That’s a really convoluted way to say they rinse them off in clean water.

It's more than rinsing them off. Oysters are filter feeders. They need to spend enough time in clean water to pump out any contaminants. It's an FDA regulated process:

https://www.fda.gov/food/federalstate-food-programs/national...

> Anyway, seafood comes from the ocean. I don’t see why they would be worse than other oysters.

It depends on the cleanliness of the water. These oysters are raised in a lagoon surrounded by the city of Carlsbad:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carlsbad+Aquafarm/@33.1419...

I imagine that lagoon is subject to runoff and not nearly as clean as oysters harvested in open waters.

[hinkley]

If they were pulling disgusting water into the desalination plant, it would probably damage their equipment. If you watch the video, you'll find that macroscopic contamination is the first problem they have to solve, and the oysters should be fine for that.

[the_sleaze9]

A strong case for not eating any oysters at all -- but don't forget they're totally aphrodisiacs

[beembeem]

That's really cool! Thanks for pointing this out.