OYSTER, STEWART ISLAND
(Ostrea angasi).
This occurs throughout New Zealand and is usually found unattached on the sea bottom, from shallow water mud flats to a depth of about 15 fm. The shell is whitish and scaly and lacks the dark violet edging of other species. The richest beds of these shellfish are in Foveaux Strait, from 10–15 fm, where they are commercially dredged by a fleet of small vessels operating from the port of Bluff. The Maori name for an oyster is tio para.
by Arthur William Baden Powell, Assistant Director, Auckland Institute and Museum.
