This morning the tide was at its lowest this month, leaving a good part of our cove empty. I happened to catch it just in time and put on my wellies to survey the oyster population for the first time this year before the rising tide would make a dry survey impossible. What I found were the remnants of voracious eating by what may be the green and tiger crabs that have invaded our cove. I did not see any of the crabs but I saw the trace of their gluttony: dismembered oyster shells everywhere as well as the shells of other sea creatures that were supposed to protect them but they had not. The shells had holes in them or were broken open. It was a real battlefield, if one can call it a battle when hungry creatures eat other creatures to stay alive. Last year I could wade out at low tide and pick up a dozen oysters in no time, leaving plenty behind. This time it took a lot of time. There was some urgency as the tide started to come in and my hands were getting numb from picking up shell after shell. Nearly all turned out to be just one half of an oyster already consumed.
Looking over what the crabs had left behind after they gorged themselves on the oysters, mussels and other smaller shellfish in our cove, I could not help to think of manmade battles and in particular the destruction created by my adopted country and its allies in places like Ukraine, Lebanon and Iran, where civilians were going about their lives peacefully, just like these shellfish. And then, suddenly, they saw their lives destroyed by aggressors, who left behind nothing but destruction and shell-shocked individuals with not even an intact shell to withdraw into. These aggressors are hungry, like the crabs, but, unlike them, not for food. They are hungry for oil and land. Their survival does not depend on destroying what others have built. It is a different kind of gluttony.
As the water reached the top of my boots it was time to stop the search. I had found ten whole oysters. Unlike the crabs, I am not hungry and don’t need oysters to stay alive. For me it is just a gastronomical delight. This morning I was just like the crabs, an aggressor, on the wrong side of the equation. But I’ll have them for dinner just the same.
Sylvia's Journal 
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