‘Trouble in Oysteropolis’: The contested geographies of aquaculture at the North Kent coast

The Kentish flats off the coast of Southeast England have long been associated with oyster cultivation, with the fishery companies at Faversham, Reculver and especially Whitstable enjoying national renown during the nineteenth and early twentieth century before overfishing, disease and changing culinary fashions put paid to the industry. Yet in the twenty first century, oyster cultivation has enjoyed an unlikely revival with the heritage of the industry enrolled in place marketing and tourism efforts including the annual Whitstable Oyster Festival: though this has been largely reliant on imported oysters, the establishment of trestle tables on the foreshore at Whitstable Beach since 2009/2010 has been a tangible indicator of the revival of aquaculture. Yet this has been controversial: some regard the trestles as unsightly, a hazard for local water sports, and an industrial imposition on a leisure-based coast. Moreover, some are concerned the oysters being cultivated are not Kentish Natives but imported triploid Pacific oysters. This paper explores these controversies, and their attempted resolution through planning processes, conceptualising the oyster as a ‘lively commodity’ whose presence at the coast appears strongly determined by human geographies of taste, class and (national) identity that regard the oyster as cultivated seafood rather than as an agential, living being.