We introduced our Bush Terminal Park oysters to their new habitat early in the summer.  They were at the spat-on-shell stage; student interns had induced the broodstock to spawn just after the end of school, and we’d gotten a good set. It was the first of our new community reef sites, and we had high hopes: the lagoons at BTP are protected, the water was promising.

Here’s what happened next…

June 29, 2016.  Oysters are roughly 2 mm wide– that’s them, those brown spots you can see on the shell.

July 7, 2016.  One week later.

August 18, 2016:

And September 26, 2016