Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) up to about 8 inches When you have a meal of oysters along the East Coast, most likely you're enjoying the Eastern oyster. As you drive along the shore of Toms Cove on Assateague (map), you'll see a few old oyster beds when the tide is low (upper photo, near blind). The cove was once well known for its oysters, and guards in oyster watchtowers rising above the water protected the beds from thieves. Eventually storms and the migrating sands brought an end to the extensive oyster beds. Most of the oysters that still grow around Assateague have been cultivated: seed oysters are planted in the beds. Whether oysters are cultivated or grow naturally, the larvae cement themselves to rocks, shells, or any other solid objects and spend their lives in one place, opening their growing shells to filter algae from the water. Empty, shucked shells are often dumped back in the water to provide a substrate for the attachment of larvae. The middle photo shows a group of five cemented shells; in the upper left of the photo is a live oyster. The oysters change their sex during their lives, starting as males and usually ending as females. The shape of oysters varies and depends mainly on how many crowd about them in the bed as they develop. Like other oysters, Eastern oysters can make pearls if a grain of sand or debris becomes lodged between the shell and the outer layer of tissue (the mantle) that secretes the shell. The particle itself is then covered in layers of new shell, and if it does not become a part of the surrounding shell, it becomes a separate "pearl." Pearls made by Eastern oysters, however, are of no commercial interest since they have no real luster. The enemies of the oyster are usually oyster drill snails, starfish, oyster flatworms, and crabs. While on Chincoteague, be sure to visit the Oyster and Maritime Museum (at the side of the road just before the causeway and bridge to Assateague) for oystering exhibits and artifacts, shell collections, fossil shells, and lighthouse lenses. One showcase holds a curious collection of man-made objects retrieved from the water with oysters attached.

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