Oyster Season Is Back in Murrells Inlet. Here's How the Inlet Does It This Fall
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
The season opened on a Thursday morning, one half-hour before official sunrise on October 1, 2026. That is the moment South Carolina's coastal mud flats legally go back to being a pantry. Eleven days later, the oyster calendar along Highway 17 Business is filling in. There's a sold-out-prone roast on the MarshWalk, a restaurant that farms its own lease a few miles up the road, and a row of state recycling trailers parked in restaurant lots.
In Murrells Inlet, an oyster that comes out of the creek can go back in as shell. Every stop in the season, from the license counter to the roast bucket to the trailer behind the bar, belongs to the same loop. Knowing how each piece works makes the season easier to use.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources set the 2026–27 recreational shellfish season to run from October 1, 2026, through May 15, 2027. The agency can extend or shorten it if conditions warrant. SCDNR's general regulations page still prints a May 27 end date. The season-specific 2026–27 SCDNR announcement and maps say May 15, and those are the newer documents.
The basics from that announcement:
SCDNR's regulations also say harvesting between a half-hour after sunset and a half-hour before sunrise is illegal. Scoops, scrapes, tongs and dredges need a permit. The agency asks harvesters to "cull in place," which means breaking off dead shell and small oysters and leaving them on the shoreline to keep growing.
Then comes the asterisk. The inlet's own state ground is S-358 Murrells Inlet, located on Main Creek in SCDES Shellfish Management Area 4. SCDNR's 2026–27 map for S-358 labels it "Partially Closed SCDES." The neighboring grounds carry the same note in SCDNR's Little River to Winyah Bay table, including R-355 Lachicotte Oyster Creek and S-357 Drunken Jack Island. On those maps, red or orange shading marks water that isn't safe for harvest. Culture and mariculture permit areas are off-limits without the permit holder's written permission.
Closures also shift after storms, heavy rain or spills. SCDES posts them on an interactive map and at 1-800-285-1618. The rain closure the agency announced on October 5, 2026, covered Charleston County areas, not Area 4. A quick check before the tide still beats relying on last week's status.
This section summarizes published state rules as general information, not legal advice. SCDNR and SCDES have the final word on your license and your bed.
For anyone who would rather eat oysters than dig them, the biggest date is Saturday, November 7. The 22nd Annual Murrells Inlet Oyster Roast runs 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Wicked Tuna parking lot at 4123 Highway 17 Business. Tickets are $40, or $41.87 with the listed fee. Each one covers all-you-can-eat oysters, your own oyster bucket and an event koozie, with live music, local craft vendors and other food for sale. The ticket page says the event sells out, oysters are first come, first served, and it happens rain or shine with no refunds. Online sales close at 12:01 p.m. on the day.
All proceeds go to the community nonprofit most locals know as Murrells Inlet 2020. The ticket page now lists it as "Murrells Inlet 29576 formally Murrells Inlet 2020." WPDE reported on September 18 that the group, at work in the inlet since 1997, would start using the new name that weekend at its Fall Haul cleanup. Executive director Stacy Johnson explained the change to the station:
"We are changing our name of Murrells Inlet 2020 and we are making it Murrells Inlet 29576, because we want to show everybody we're not here for just a year anymore we're here long term to stay."
The roast connects directly to the creeks. On its website, which still carries the 2020 branding, the organization says it helped fund the Inlet-to-Intracoastal multipurpose path. It also says it championed the MarshWalk, the Bike Bridge, Morse Park Landing and the Jetty View Walk, and that its work includes water-quality monitoring, litter cleanup and watershed planning. A bucket of oysters on November 7 helps pay for the water those oysters grow in.
Nance's Creek Front at 4883 US 17 Business makes the most specific sourcing claim on the inlet. Its site says it offers local oyster roasts in season, typically September through April, and harvests its own oysters daily from what it calls the largest shellfish lease in South Carolina. Nance's also says that at the end of each season it loads all the empty shells from the year onto a barge and spreads them back onto oyster beds in the inlet.
Seven Seas Seafood Market at 3476 Highway 17 Business holds an all-you-can-eat "Murrells Inlet Oysters" night. Its event page doesn't list a year or a price, so check before planning around it. Seven Seas supplied the oysters for the 2025 community roast.
Lee's Inlet Kitchen, Hot Fish Club, Russell's Seafood Grill and Wicked Tuna also have oysters on their menus in forms ranging from chargrilled and Rockefeller to stew and the half shell. Those menus don't state an origin or a season, so if inlet-grown matters to you, ask your server.
Whether the oysters came from a lease, a market or your own bucket on Main Creek, the shells have somewhere to go. SCDNR's SCORE shell recycling program lists four Georgetown County drop sites tagged Murrells Inlet:
The last two are close enough to the MarshWalk that dropping off a cooler of shells fits into a normal dinner out. Two rules from SCDNR apply at every trailer. Shell placed in a state receptacle becomes South Carolina property and is illegal to take back out, and all of it goes toward restoring shellfish grounds along the coast. Recycled shell is quarantined for at least six months before it's planted in the state's estuaries. Shell you drop off this November could be back in the water by next season.
The reef work is accelerating across the region. In an August 2026 WMBF report filed from Murrells Inlet, Horry County Stormwater watershed planner Brent Carey said the county has placed the highest number of manufactured wire reefs in the state. Becky Ryon of the Coastal Conservation League, which partners with SCDNR on the effort, told the station that each reef is a metal cage topped with oyster shell and backed with coconut husks to trap sediment. She said each one can support up to 7,000 baby oysters, and that a single oyster can filter 50 to 60 gallons of water a day. Shell is the raw material for that work, and it comes from oyster suppers.
The oyster loop runs through the inlet's whole fall and winter calendar, and the rest of that calendar is now posted:
One MarshWalk change is coming after this season. MyHorryNews reports that The Landing at the Boathouse plans to open a second location in spring 2027, adding more seafood dishes to the menu. According to the Post and Courier, it will be at 4139 Highway 17 Business, in front of Wicked Tuna and the boat launch, on the property that most recently housed Inlet Shipwreck Bar & Grill, with plans for an outdoor stage. That means next fall's oyster roast will happen next to a new neighbor.
We follow the inlet's seasons as closely as its sales. If you'd like a local's read on the stretch of Highway 17 Business between the MarshWalk and Nance's, or a quick call about which inlet streets put the shell trailers and the boat launch within an easy walk, Nick Paolozzi is glad to talk it through. Start Your Life at the Beach.
Stay up to date on the latest real estate trends.
Whether you’re buying your first home, selling a property, or exploring Myrtle Beach living, we’re here to make the process seamless. With local expertise and a people-first approach, we’ll guide you every step of the way.