the soft & fleshy oyster between the shells

Oysters are an important food source not only for people but also for many sea animals.  Oysters, known to be full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, have been eaten raw or cooked (only the soft body in the shells) by people since ancient times!

Like most bivalve molluscs, oysters also produce ‘pearls’ which are used in ornaments. Pearls are nothing but some very small particle, such as a grain of sand or any non-edible thing that gets into the shell house of oyster.  As the oyster cannot throw it away, it covers the ‘foreign body’ (speck of grain) with a substance called ‘nacre’ which, after several years and getting hard, becomes a ‘pearl’ as we know.  The natural cream coloured pearls are very expensive.  The colour of the pearl depends on the nature of the ‘foreign body’ and the species of oyster!

(the oyster pearl that grows between the shells)

Oysters can change their sexes, and they can be male at one stage of their life and female at another stage.  The female releases thousands of eggs directly into the water and the female releases its sperm, and the eggs fertilise in water!

The American oyster releases five hundred million eggs in a year!!  Unfortunately, only one percent of these thousands of eggs grow into larvae, and even fewer grow into spats!

Oysters are very useful: by filter feeding, they clean the water they live in!

Oysters are grown on ‘oyster farms’ for their meat and pearls!