Tasmanian oyster shucker Zoe Jacobson has finished 13th at the World Oyster Opening Championships in Ireland and says she cannot wait to give it “another go”.
Jacobson, the first woman to represent Australia at the event, was one of 16 shuckers who competed in Galway. A competitor from Finland won the title.
Several of her rivals were veterans who had competed a number of times before and said she was “the newbie into the bunch”.
She described the experience as “amazing” and said the people in Galway were “very welcoming”.
“It was such a vibe over there,” she said. “I definitely recommend it to anybody who wants to give it a crack, that’s for sure.”
Competitors in Galway open the native Galway Flat, which Jacobson described as “one of the world’s hardest oysters to get into”.
At home she mostly shucks Pacific oysters, the variety farmed most in Tasmania.
he state’s native Angasi is similar to the Galway Flat, but she said it was only available three months of the year, which limited her practice before the championships.
She said she was “very honoured to be representing Australia”
She said the result had given her “motivation to train harder and try out again for next year”.
For now, she said she and her team were focused on establishing their oyster bar, 42 Degrees in Dunalley where she is the manager and sole oyster shucker.
Her next competition is likely to be the Wooden Boat Festival, where she won her first shucking competition in 2023. She encouraged others to enter.
“I’m just happy that I gave it a good crack and I’ll be working my way up again to give it another go,” she said.
