Current understanding suggests that oyster reef area has declined substantially around the globe (Beck et al 2013). Attempts to govern oyster resources against the innovative harvester and market value have been challenged to achieve sustainable resource use since the earliest times of harvest . The implementation oyster governance and shifts in harvest practices signify changed human behavior to perceived scarcity events in order to maintain or enhance harvest to meet demand . To highlight these scarcity events throughout history, a conceptual model of human responses to oyster scarcity was developed, and is applied to specific oyster harvest regions from around the globe. The model provides a framework for comparing and contrasting the development of oyster production industries and associated governance response to perceived scarcity overtime . The apparent similarity of ancient and very modern trends in oyster production creates a seeming paradox. Seen in concert, the modern decline of wild oyster fisheries, concomitant to growing aquaculture paints a picture of widespread failure of modern governance to protect wild oyster resources. At the same time, the ancient historical records would suggest the possibility that oysters have been exploited and even overexploited for literally millennia. Yet oysters remain today, so past approaches to sustaining them must not have wholly failed. This retrospective look provides insight to inform future management developments given the modern challenge of recovering oyster reefs for their ecosystem services value in addition to retaining historic consumptive value.