Fig. 1.  Oysters Magallana gigas (Left) and Ostrea lurida (Right).  The latter shells are about 6cm in length

NOTE  the genus name of this common species has been changed to Magallana gigas (World Register of Marine Species)

Of several oyster¹ species found on this coast, only one, the Olympia oyster² Ostrea lurida (Fig. 1) is indigenous.  It is now rare on most open-coast shores, but may be locally common in embayments.  Several other species³ of Ostrea and Crassostrea may be present locally, either released accidently from mariculture facilities or intentionally introduced. Many of these species either don't reproduce or do so only infrequently.  An exception is the Japanese (Pacific) oyster Magallana gigas^4, which reproduces infrequently but is locally abundant along some areas of the entire west coast.  Because of the economic interest in oyster culture on the west coast there is an enormous literature on reproductive and larval biology, most of it of the "applied" type and too voluminous to be included here; however, a few studies are represented.  In contrast to the large volume of mariculture research on oysters, little attention has been paid to their ecology.

NOTE¹ the English word “oyster” derives from the Old French “oistre”, and that presumably from the Latin “ostrea”, referring to the animal.  In the absence of an original English common name for oyster, one wonders if they were missing from British diets until after the Norman invasion of 1066.  In this regard, recall the words of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels):  “It was a bold person that first ate an oyster”, to which one humorous wag added:  “and less bold the first that ate an oyster with the shells removed”!

NOTE² the Olympia oyster recently enjoyed a surge of interest in the dedication of an entire issue number of Journal of Shellfish Research (2009 Vol 28 Issue 1) to its biology.  Several papers from this journal are included in this section of the ODYSSEY.  A recent paper on the genetics of Ostrea populations from Baja California to British Columbia confirms that there are, in fact, two separate species, with O. conchaphila being restricted to localities south of central Baja California, and O. lurida to all localities north of this location.  In view of this all literature references in the ODYSSEY to the northern taxon as O. conchaphila will be changed to O. lurida to reflect these new designations. 

NOTE³ these include the European oyster Ostrea edulis, Suminoe oyster Crassostrea ariakensis, Kumamoto oyster Crassostrea sikamea, and Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica

NOTE⁴  formerly Crassostrea gigas, changed to Magallana gigas in 2018, originally described by Thunberg in 1793 as Ostrea gigas