In the face of an increasing world population and a subsequent need for an increase in sustainable and healthy food production, low trophic species, such as oysters, emerge as a promising alternative. However, regional variations in oyster production techniques, market dynamics, and consumption patterns create challenges for both the global and local industry’s growth. In this study, a descriptive qualitative analysis of oyster markets across seven Atlantic regions was carried out. The Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) was found to be farmed in most Atlantic regions except the US but is classified as invasive in Sweden and potentially invasive in South Africa. Other farmed and/or harvested species include native species (C. gasar and C. rhizophorae) in Brazil, the American cupped oyster (C. virginica) in the US, and the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) in France, Sweden, and the US. In Irish farms, Pacific oysters are primarily for export to European markets. The marine aquaculture sectors of Sweden, South Africa, and Namibia, as well as Brazil’s farming for C. gasar, were found to be underdeveloped. This study also observed a variation in licensing, property rights, and regulatory frameworks. Financial challenges for small businesses, ecological implications of seed production techniques, biosecurity risks, and public health considerations are emphasized as critical areas for attention. This study offers valuable insights into the selected markets and can serve as a useful resource for policymakers, aquaculture practitioners, and stakeholders in optimizing global shellfish industry strategies.

Incorporating travel time into recreational demand analysis is a much debated topic. The aim of this paper is to contribute to discourse surrounding the travel cost method by analysing data from a bass angling tournament, the Amatola Bass Classic, held annually in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Firstly, data collected from 64 respondents were used to test the goodness-of-fit of four models: the Standard Poisson, the Zero-Truncated Poisson, the Negative Binomial and the Zero-Truncated Negative Binomial. These models were then utilised to gauge the difference between two standard ways of treating time, by including it both as a separate parameter and as an intrinsic part of travel costs. The data were found to be overdispersed, pointing to a greater level of reliability in the Negative Binomial Models. Using all four models it was shown that the incorporation of time into the overall cost of the trip produced results which were better able to explain the amount of trips taken by anglers than those model specifications where time was included as a separate parameter.