Jim Harty was, by any reasonable account, a visionary. In the 1980s, when Ireland’s oyster industry barely existed as a commercial proposition, he saw what Dungarvan Bay could offer — temperate water, nutrient-rich currents from the Atlantic and the surrounding rivers — and founded Dungarvan Shellfish Ltd, one of the very first oyster farms in the county.
A Family Business Since 1835
The Harty family has been farming the land and water of Dungarvan Bay for six generations, since 1835. That depth of relationship with a specific piece of coastline produces something you can’t replicate with infrastructure and technology alone: an instinctive understanding of how the bay behaves, what it produces, and how to bring the best out of it.
The oysters themselves — triploid Gigas in four sizes — earned a reputation in France before they were properly known at home. The Harty “spéciale” is valued for its balance of salinity, sweetness, and texture: meaty and tender, with a flavour profile that reflects the particular character of Dungarvan Bay.
Over 600 Tonnes a Year
The scale of the operation — over 600 tonnes of oysters annually — is significant without being industrial. Harty runs a nursery on site for juvenile oysters, won the BIM Innovation Award for that development, and generates 50% of the operation’s electricity from a wind turbine. The family sustainability commitment is real rather than rhetorical — when your livelihood depends on the health of a specific bay, you tend to mean it.
Six generations on the same bay, producing oysters that made the French take notice. Harty Oysters is what Irish artisan food looks like when it has genuine roots.
Find Them
Harty Oysters are available through quality seafood retailers, at Waterford restaurants, and featured at the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore among other fine dining venues. Contact directly for trade and wholesale enquiries.
Harty Oysters / Dungarvan Shellfish Ltd
Dungarvan Bay, Co. Waterford
🌐 hartyoysters.com
