Maryland Oysters Months with an R are oystering months. As the days get shorter crabbing gear is stowed and boats are set up for the oyster harvest. These delectable bivalves are harvested using hand tongs , winch-powered tongs and by dredging from skipjacks . Oyster shuckers deftly evict the mollusks from their homes presenting the plump, delicate, slightly salty Crassostrea virginica to grateful diners worldwide. These elusive creatures appear even more so when one realizes they switch their sex during their lifetime.
All oysters begin life as males and become females after a couple of years.
It even appears they can detect sexual imbalances among them and switch back to become males again as needed. Female oysters spawn millions of eggs at a time and the fertilized oyster larvae, or spat, float for many weeks until they settle on a hard surface and begin to develop a shell. Spat looks like grayish dirt. When it settles onto a shell, rock or piling to begin development it is called spatfall . This WWW page was funded by the Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore through a grant from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce .