Pull-tab Oysters To keep consumers from cutting their hands when opening oyster shells, a French engineer developed a method for inserting "pull-tabs" that release the oyster shell from the inside. The technique has been catching on in France, Japan, Belgium, Holland, Ireland and Canada. To learn more, click here. What to do if your oyster has no pull-tab? Click here for step-by-step oyster shucking instructions. (When you have opened the instruction window, you may click on the pictures to enlarge them for better viewing. This window, however, contains a site that is not part of the Washington Sea Grant Program Web site. Therefore you will have to close the window and reopen it to view the contents again.) Return to Oysters Are Cool