Pacific Oysters (Photo : Getty Images)
A paradise--that’s how Chinese food lovers see Limfjord, Denmark, with oysters in its beaches.
On Monday, the Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing posted on Weibo, the Chinese counterpart of Twitter, about the invasion of Pacific oysters that post a threat to the region’s coastal ecosystem.
The story of the oyster invasion quickly went viral on Chinese social media. According to the Danish embassy’s official Facebook page, the post has 6.5 million views and 40,000 people have shared or commented.
Chinese netizens mostly commented offers to come and help clear the oyster-filled Danish coasts, while some suggested that the oysters be shipped to China where they will be immediately sold. The unwanted Pacific oysters are regarded as a famous Chinese delicacy.
Beijing Youth Daily reported of a Chinese netizen who inquired of the Danish embassy if they will give free oyster-picking trips to the country.
Although the response was negative, the embassy is hoping that more Chinese tourists will come to Denmark after learning about the oyster invasion.
The story went viral at a perfect time as Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen is scheduled to visit China from May 2 to 4. In addition, the current year has been designated as official China-Denmark Tourism Year.
Even though the oyster invasion seems to be of advantage for Danish tourism, there is a small probability that the Pacific oyster will renounce its new-found territory to the native European flat oyster, Peter Blanner, a marine biologist from World Wildlife Fund, told Danish newspaper Politiken.
“We can encourage everybody to go out and harvest all the oysters they possibly can, but it would just be a symbolic action that wouldn’t make any big difference,” he said.
Denmark hopes that the news of oysters in beach will help Chinese food lovers choose the country to be their next travel destination.
