These balls dissolve in the water into free floating sperm. The males release their spermatozoa from their mantle cavity in the form of sperm balls. During the oyster's first spawning cycle they will act as a male and then switch between sexes during their following spawning cycles. The Olympia oyster spawns between the months of May and August, when the water reaches temperatures above 14 degrees Celsius. The species ranges as far north as Southern Alaska. This is the oyster species which is native to Puget Sound. Additionally oysters have been decreasing rapidly in population and Oyster reef restoration projects have been organized to maintain this species existence. This flux will in fact protect them from parasitic flukes, which cannot survive the change in salinity. However, the oysters can survive in areas with streams that cause a flux in the salinity. Their habitats must have water depths of 0–71 meters, ranging in temperatures of 6-20 degrees Celsius, with a salinity above 25 ppt. The oysters attach to the underside of rocks or onto the shells of old oyster beds. At slightly higher elevations they will live in areas bordered by mudflats, and in eel grass beds at lower elevation. Ostrea lurida oysters live in bays and estuaries. Oyster beds also provide shelter for anemones, crabs, and other small marine life. This is an essential function to keeping marine waters clean. Olympia oysters filter between 9 and 12 quarts of water each day, but is highly dependent on environmental conditions. Olympia oysters are suspension feeders, meaning they filter their surrounding water and screen out the phytoplankton they feed on. Unlike most bivalves, oysters do not have a foot in adulthood they also lack an anterior adductor muscle and do not secrete byssal threads, like mussels do. Ostrea lurida oysters lie with their left valve on the substrate, where they are firmly attached. The color of the oyster's flesh is white to a light olive green. Unlike most bivalves, the Olympia oyster's shell lacks the periostracum, which is the outermost coating of shell that prevents erosion of the underlying shell. The shell can be rounded or elongated and is white to purplish black and may be striped with yellow or brown. This bivalve is approximately 6 to 8 centimetres (2.4 to 3.1 in) in length. Large shell mounds, also known as middens, have been found during excavations consisting of discarded oyster shells estimated to be at least 3000 years in age. lurida has been found in archaeological excavations along the Central California coast of the Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that it was a marine species exploited by the Native American Chumash people. However, previously, for a period of time, Ostrea lurida was considered to be merely a junior synonym of Ostrea conchaphila. ![]() Molecular evidence has recently confirmed the separate status of the two species. Ostrea lurida is now known to be separate from a similar-appearing species, Ostrea conchaphila, which occurs further south, south of Baja California, in Mexico. Over the years the role of this edible species of oyster has been partly displaced by the cultivation of non-native edible oyster species. This species occurs on the northern Pacific coast of North America. Ostrea lurida, common name the Olympia oyster, after Olympia, Washington in the Puget Sound area, is a species of edible oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Ostreidae. Olympia oysters and shucking knife for scale
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