If you like Chesapeake Bay seafood, and you like to express yourself with emojis, you’re in luck. The oyster is getting its very own emoji, just approved for use on smartphones and social media apps.
Among the 230 new emoji variations approved for 2019, new foods are represented including the oyster, onion, juice box, and stick of butter.
The Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit corporation that standardizes software, accepts proposals for new emojis each year. In 2019, the proposals that made the cut include expanded skin tones combinations, people with disabilities, cultural symbols, and, yes, the oyster.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation shared the news with excitement, pointing out that the oyster depicted in the emoji is not likely a Chesapeake bivalve, because our Crassostrea virginica isn’t likely to have a big, beautiful pearl. But it’s a start.
CBF wants to take the emoji trend even further, sharing in a blog post, “Why stop at just an oyster? Arguably an emoji of oyster reefs would be an even better representation of the Bay. Oyster reefs are important habitat in the Bay’s waters and at one time were so large they even posed navigational hazards to Chesapeake Bay explorers like Captain John Smith.”
For now, keep an eye out for that juicy oyster emoji when the next updates come to your phone.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
