Crassostrea Virginica x Haskin NEH® Oyster Eyed Larvae ME

The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is also known as the Atlantic oyster, American oyster, East Coast oyster, Wellfleet oyster, Virginia oyster, Malpeque oyster, Blue Point oyster, Chesapeake Bay oyster, Apalachicola oyster and the Totten Inlet Virginica.

This species of true oyster of the family Ostreidae in the order Ostreida, is native to eastern North and South America. 

The filter feeder can filter up to 50 gallons of water in 24 hours. The oysters also provide a key structural element within their ecosystem, making them a foundation species in many environments like estuaries, coral reefs, oyster beds or oyster reefs, providing key habitats for a variety of different aquatic species by creating a hard substrate for attachment and habitation and attract a high concentration of larger predators looking for food.

Spawning of C. virginica is controlled by water temperatures and varies from north to south northern oysters spawn at temperatures between 60 °F and 68 °F / 16 °C and 20 °C, whereas southern oysters spawn at temperatures above 68 °F / 20 °C). Spawning can occur throughout the warm months.

Eastern oysters can reach sexual maturity at four months old in southern waters.

Each female produces from 75 to 150 million eggs, but only one in a thousand survives.

During the first year of life, C. virginica oysters are protandric. Most spat are male, but once they reach sexual maturity, some males change to females after the first or second spawning. Some females may change back to males again.

Harvestable size of a C. virginica oyster is 75 mm / 3.0 in, which can take from 12 to 36 months, depending on temperature, salinity of the water, and food supply. Salinity is a very important climatological variable that affects spatfall. Oysters do best where salinities range from 10 to 30 ppt, the range of 15 to 18 ppt is considered optimal. Typically, when salinity levels are less than 6 ppt, larvae will not settle and metamorphose into spat.

These eastern oysters are from selected lines hybridized with the Rutgers University Haskin NEH® oyster, bred for high survival rates in the clean, cold waters of Middle Bay, Maine.

Ships April to August.