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Anlaki! Giant oyster named 'Georgette' found off French coast

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/afp/08/09/oyster-afp.jpg"/><figcaption>This handout picture released on August 8, 2019 by Les Viviers de la Guittière oyster farm and taken on August 3, 2019 in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, western France, shows a giant oyster of 1,440kg (3,2 pounds), 25 centimetres high (9,9 inches) and aged between 13 and 15 years, found on August 2, 2019. Handout / Viviers de la Guittière / AFP</figcaption></figure></div>Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France - Oyster farmers in western France have sacrificed a seafood feast and put a mega-mollusc weighing 1.44 kilograms (3.2 pounds) back in the water after naming it &quot;Georgette&quot; in honor of a retiring worker.The 25-centimeter (10-inch) long oyster was discovered at Talmont-Saint-Hilaire in the Vendee department last Friday.&quot;I was working in the channel and walking along I felt something with my foot,&quot; said Mathieu Naslin, an employee of the Viviers de la Guittière oyster farm.&quot;I picked it up and it was a huge oyster,&quot; he told AFP on Thursday.Another mammoth oyster was found at a farm close by in the Sables d&#x27;Olonne area in April, weighing in at 1.3 kilograms.&quot;It&#x27;s extremely rare,&quot; said Naslin, adding that he had never seen anything like it during eight years in the job.&quot;No doubt there are more oysters this big out at sea but in the farms you do not expect this.&quot;The salinity level occasionally drops a lot because we are next to a lake that puts water into our channel. That restricts the growth of the oysters.&quot;The oyster, which has since been returned to the Atlantic waters, was nicknamed &quot;Georgette&quot; after one of the workers who recently retired.&quot;She was a sort of matriarch at the company,&quot; Naslin explained.The team has estimated Georgette was 13-15 years old taking into account that a commercial oyster normally grows about three centimetres a year and stays in the water for three years.&quot;Nonetheless it has been shown from the growth of the shells that an oyster can live for between 35 and 65 years,&quot; he said.Georgette is edible but the farm has no intention of selling it.&quot;There are people who go for very big oysters, but we want to keep it alive and why not keep it growing. It&#x27;s like a trophy,&quot; Naslin said.&quot;Quite a few people have offered to buy it.&quot;As a joke, the boss told us he would not let it go for under 2,000 euros ($2,240).&quot;But we would not sell it, even for 30,000 euros.&quot;cor/faa/db/bp/boc© Agence France-Presse

Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France - Oyster farmers in western France have sacrificed a seafood feast and put a mega-mollusc weighing 1.44 kilograms (3.2 pounds) back in the water after naming it "Georgette" in honor of a retiring worker.

Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France - Oyster farmers in western France have sacrificed a seafood feast and put a mega-mollusc weighing 1.44 kilograms (3.2 pounds) back in the water after naming it "Georgette" in honor of a retiring worker.