Tyne Valley festival crowns new oyster shucking champion

The Canadian Oyster Shucking Championship held Friday night at the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival may have had its biggest attendance yet though many fans weren't even in the room.

For the first time, the competition was live streamed on Facebook.

• Tyne Valley festival features music, free oysters

"We got great feedback from oyster bars all across the country,"said organizer Jeff Noye. "People who couldn't make it to Tyne Valley, people in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Niagara, Ottawa lots of oyster bars watching and people cheering on."

A close community

The festival doesn't have final numbers on how many tuned in online, but Noye estimates it was a few thousand, adding to the big crowd on site. The oyster community is close-knit, so they were excited by the opportunity to watch, Noye said.

"Everybody is friends, all the oyster bars, all the oyster growers people involved in the business they're you know, they're tight." he said.

"They want to see each other compete, they want to watch each other, they want to see how well they're doing so if you can't make it to the festival, I think it meant a lot for them to still be able to watch it in their own home."

Fastest to shuck 18 oysters

And who did they see crowned the champ? Daniel Notkin of Montreal took his first title after coming in second a few times. He shucked the required 18 oysters in one minute and 31 seconds. (Final time, adjusted for deductions, was one minute, 48 seconds.)

Noye said it was a close and exciting race, and one Notkins was excited to win.

"He was extremely, extremely happy last night," said Noye.

The festival continues Saturday with the Rock the Boat Music Festival, and wraps up Sunday with the crowning of Miss Oyster Pearl.

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