Pacific oysterThe Pacific oyster, Japanese oyster, or Miyagi oyster (Magallana gigas), is an oyster native to the Pacific coast of Asia. It has become an introduced species in North America, Australia, Europe, and New Zealand. The genus Magallana is named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and its specific epithet gígās is from the Greek for "giant". It was previously placed in the genus Crassostrea; from the Latin crass meaning "thick", ostrea meaning "oyster", and Crassostrea gigas is considered by part of the scientific community to be the proper denomination as an accepted alternative in WoRMS, The shell of M.
Eastern oysterThe eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)—also called the Atlantic oyster, American oyster, or East Coast oyster—is a species of true oyster native to eastern North and South America. Other names in local or culinary use include the Wellfleet oyster, Virginia oyster, Malpeque oyster, Blue Point oyster, Chesapeake Bay oyster, and Apalachicola oyster. C. virginica ranges from northern New Brunswick south through parts of the West Indies to Venezuela.
OysterOyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters, are in the superfamily Ostreoidea. Some types of oysters are commonly consumed (cooked or raw), and in some locales, they are regarded as a delicacy. Some types of pearl oysters are harvested for the pearl produced within the mantle.
MaricultureMariculture or marine farming is a specialized branch of aquaculture (which includes freshwater aquaculture) involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other animal products, in enclosed sections of the open ocean (offshore mariculture), fish farms built on littoral waters (inshore mariculture), or in artificial tanks, ponds or raceways which are filled with seawater (onshore mariculture). An example of the latter is the farming of marine fish, including finfish and shellfish like prawns, or oysters and seaweed in saltwater ponds.
