What Kind of Oysters Grow in SC?

Eastern Oysters in Bull's Bay

The oysters that we harvest and eat around Charleston are know as the Eastern Oyster, or Crassostrea virginica if you’re into some binomial nomenclature.  Other common names include Atlantic Oyster, American Oyster, or Virginia Oyster.  Eastern Oysters are native to the entire eastern seaboard and are actually farm raised in Puget Sound, WA.

The eastern oyster has always been prized for food, but the numbers of bushels harvested per year has declined dramatically in the past 20 years.  This is mainly due to over-fishing of the traditional beds.  On the leases we work, we do yearly maintenance to ensure that we can harvest year after year.  This is mainly done through planting dead shell (from your oyster roast) and transplanting living oysters from areas that aren’t growing well to areas that do grow well.

The Eastern Oyster, like all true oysters, is a filter feeder.  During high tide, when they are covered with water, they suck water in, filter out the plankton and detritus, and spit clean water out.  One oyster can actually filter 48 gallons of water in 24 hours!  We owe the pristine water quality around Charleston (specifically Bulls Bay) largely to the Eastern Oyster.

Eastern Oysters do create pearls to surround particles in the shell, but they are of insignifigant size and value; unless you happen to bite one.  I think in 33 years of eating them, though, I have found one pearl.  I do still have it (and I didn’t break a tooth).

If you have any seafood science questions, leave them in the comments, and I’ll get you an answer.

source: Wikipedia