Malabar oysters are named after the infamous Cape Malabar, now known as Monomoy National Wildife refuge. With Nantucket Sound to the west, and the frigid Atlantic Ocean to the east, dangerous “rips” where the two bodies of water come together over shallow shoals and bars have led to a number of shipwrecks, and earned Monomoy the ancient French name of Cape Malabar—the “Cape of Evil Bars. Although not known for shipwrecks anymore, Monomoy Island is known for it's massive concentration of Great White Sharks.

Monomoy was also famous for its mooncussers, another danger to sailors. Sometimes called “land-based pirates”, they would light misleading signal fires that would lead mariners astray. They would sail their ships where they thought there was safe passage between shoals, only to run aground on sandbars and be robbed by the wreckers, a misfortune that would make them curse their fate at the moon— thus the term Mooncusser was coined.

Malabar oysters are grown just down the coast from Monomoy Island in West Bay Osterville.

Andrew