Background Of Amazing Oysters

Amazing Oysters – The Bay’s Most Valuable Animal

Background

You might be surprised to learn that the most important animal in the Chesapeake Bay is the oyster. In addition to being a tasty dish on the menu at many seafood restaurants, and an important part of the economy of the Bay area, oysters play a critical role in maintaining the health of the Bay for a variety of reasons.

First, oysters are natural water purifiers. Because they are filter feeders, oysters help keep the water in the Bay clear by eating (or filtering) algae and sediments from the water. Oysters are such efficient cleaning machines that a single adult oyster can filter up to 60 gallons of water a day. Before the Chesapeake Bay’s decline, it took only three to six days for the oysters to clean the amount of water in the bay.

Thin flat fish like skillet fish and blennies can slip in and hide in the small spaces within the reef.

These small fish live, feed and breed in the reef. Their larval forms eat oyster larvae and the mature fish are eaten by other reef residents such as mud crabs and striped bass. Reefs are shelter and feeding grounds for a variety of animals throughout the food chain including striped bass, oyster toad fish, puffer fish, skates, blue crabs, grass shrimp, mussels, sponges and barnacles. The diversity and abundance of species living in the reef area depends on the health of the reef. Not only do healthier reefs contain more oysters, but they also contain more fish and crabs.

Young oysters, called spat, need to attach to the older oysters shells in order to develop. The layering of oysters is how reefs are formed and grow as older oysters at the bottom die, and new oysters settle on the top. The reef grows both vertically and horizontally over time and the older a reef is, the more surface area it contains where other plants and animals can grow, hide, feed and