An oyster is a shellfish with 2 rough shells that hook together at one end. (The narrow end.) The oyster has strong muscles which hold the shell shut. It is very difficult for predators (like people) to pry open the shell. An Eastern oyster is usually 2 - 6 inches long. The inside of the shell has a purple mark where the oyster was attached. Be careful, the shell is sharp and can cut you!

Oyster shells are made of calcium carbonate (lime). The oysters must get this from the water they live in. They also have a sort of skin, called a mantle, which spreads to this calcium carbonate on the outside of their bodies to form a protective shell. Oysters only grow in areas where salt & fresh water mix together, like salt marshes. Oysters are born as free swimming microscopic organisms. When they grow up they find a place (on mud, coral, debris, or other oyster shells) to attach and grow. Once they grow their shells, they can't move around anymore.

Oysters are filter feeders. They suck water in a filter out the plankton and detritus to swallow. Then they spit the water back out. Oysters have gills and get their oxygen from the water.

Each summer seed collectors are hung from lines in selected bays and rivers on PEI. In late June - Early July, oysters reproduce releasing billions of tiny oyster larvae into the water. Three to four weeks later, they cement themselves onto the collectors.

The following spring the intermediate stage begins when the bags are lifted off the bottom and placed in racks or suspended from longlines. By June the one year-old oyster seed should be 15-20mm long. Many oyster growers are using rebar racks placed on the bottom to support their cages. This raises the cages up into the water column where the food is more plentiful resulting in faster growth others are simply insert Styrofoam floatation into the bags and attaching them directly to the longline.

By fall, the oyster seed will have grown large enough to be removed from the collectors. The collectors are harvested, "thrashed", and the oyster seed placed into the mesh bags for over-wintering on the bottom.

Throughout the next year the oyster seed are graded and the densities in the bags are reduced to prevent overcrowding and to allow the oysters to begin to form the nice deep cut that is prized in the market place. By the time they reach two years old, the oysters should be 35-50mm long. Many oyster growers spread their oysters on the bottom for the last one to two years of the grow-out cycle. This helps them to form the nice deep cut that is valued by consumers.

The majority of PEI's oysters come from the traditional fishery. However, an increasing number of Islanders are looking to aquaculture to expand production of this highly valuable shellfish. PEI is second to only British Columbia in terms of oyster production. Canadian production is projected to increase five-fold in the next few years with the most of this increase coming from aquaculuture. PEI producers are well positioned to contribute to this increase.