The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) — also called Atlantic oyster or Virginia oyster — is a species of true oyster native to the eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of North America. It is also farmed in Puget Sound, Washington, where it is known as the Totten Inlet Virginica. Eastern oysters are and have been very popular commercially. Today, less than 1% of the original 17th century population (when the original colonists arrived) is thought to remain in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, although population estimates from any era are uncertain. The eastern oyster is the state shellfish of Connecticut, and its shell is the state shell of Virginia and Mississippi.
Read more about Eastern Oyster: Description, The Life Cycle, Composition of The Larval Shell, Commercial Value, Effects of The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Diseases
Famous quotes containing the words eastern and/or oyster:
“But we are spirits of another sort.
I with the morning’s love have oft made sport,
And like a forester the groves may tread
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessèd beams,
Turns unto yellow gold his salt green streams.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I had rather be an oyster than a man, the most stupid and senseless of animals.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)