![]() Like the name sounds, aquaculture is the raising of aquatic organisms in controlled or semi-controlled environments for the purposes of food and restoration. Agriculture is to the chicken, as aquaculture is to the oyster. While wild populations lost their economic value, innovators were busy developing methods of farming oysters through aquaculture. History of Oysters in NYC and Long Island A single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of seawater per day! Clean water, reef engineering, and a delicious food source are just some of the many ecosystem services that oysters provide. They do this by creating a current, taking in water through a siphon, filtering algae with their gills, and expelling clean water through a second siphon. Oysters are filter feeders and help keep our bays clean as they feed on microscopic algae, called phytoplankton. This provides habitat for other creatures, prevents erosion of sediment, and acts as a storm barrier. They can form clusters so large they act as reefs, much like a coral reef. In the first days of life, swimming larval oysters cement down onto hard surfaces forming spat. They belong to the mollusc phylum, along with snails and even octopus, most of which make a hard shell of calcium carbonate (limestone). ![]() Oysters, along with their cousins, clams, scallops, and mussels, are classified as bivalves, meaning “two shells”. The species of oyster we have here on the East Coast is called the Eastern Oyster - scientific name, Crassostrea virginica.
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