Janet Sherouse, age 12, of Denver, Colo., "for her question:
When is an oyster big enough to eat?
Andy gave some thought to this question. He was not sure whether Janet wanted to know when the little fellow is big enough to take nourishment or when he is big enough to be eaten. So lets hear his life story which answers both questions,
Mama Oyster is a fat mollusk living inside two crusty shells. She never moves from her one spot. It may be a bed of old shells, a wharf piling or a smooth rock, She lives not fat from shore where rivers dilute the salty sea with fresh water, She may be one of 100 different kinds of oyster. Her watery home may be warm or cool, but she cannot endure in cold polar waters.
Changing seasons bring the oyster warm and cooler water. Food is most plentiful in warm water. The New England oyster stops eating and growing and dozes through the worst of the winter. The lucky oyster of tropic seas feeds and grows all. year round. But, come spring, any oyster is alerted for the breeding season. Mama stuffs herself on tiny diatoms. These tiny sea dwellers measure 200 to 500 to an inch. But each is a miracle of beauty,
Mama is ready to launch her first batch of eggs when the water reaches 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The New England oyster begins in early July. The Gulf of Mexico oyster begins in March. Batches are launched from time to time all summer. There are millions of eggs in each batch ‑ 500 of them measure one inch. Mama oyster may launch half a billion eggs in a single season. Why, then, isn't the sea solid with oysters? Only one little egg in four million lives to grow up,
His brothers and sisters are eaten by hungry fish or smothered in mud and slimy algae. Our little fellow hatches in about five hours. He is now a larva oyster. Magnified, he looks like a glassy oval with a Mortimer Snerd top‑knot, He swims about and becomes part of the plankton. This is the seafood salad of tiny plants and animals which is staple diet for many ocean dwellers,
Our little fellow swims among billions who must eat and be eaten. It is time now for him to take his first meal. Mama launched him in the water only 5 to 10 hours ago ‑ an egg no bigger than one 500th part of an inch, He is now ready to dine upon fragments of algae and swimmers even smaller than himself,
In a couple of days he starts building his shell. In six more days his soft little body is completely encrusted. He swims about for two more weeks and grows to be one 75th part of an inch. Then he settles in some quiet spot as his mother did before him.
He means to stay in his one spot for life, But, in a year or two, oyster farmers may dredge him up and dump him into deeper water where there is more food. If this happens, he soon settles again and goes on eating pretty diatoms and growing. If he lives off the New England coast, he will be big enough for market in four years. If he lives in the warm Gulf of Mexico, he is ready to be eaten in two to three years. You may eat him long before he is full grown. But there is more of him to enjoy if you wait.