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Article: Oyster gardeners: New Jersey students reintroduce oysters to the local waterways.(EARTH: ESTUARIES)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- October 5, 2009
- Author:
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Once a month, the eighth-graders in Larissa Drennan's homeroom class at Woodrow Wilson School in Bayonne, New Jersey, head to the beach. But the students don't spend the day sunbathing. Instead, they monitor the class's oysters.
Oysters are mollusks with soft bodies protected by hard, rough, oval-shaped shells. An oyster will attach itself to any hard surface, such as rocks, stray cans, and even other oysters. It then spends its life in that spot in the water, feeding on algae.
Although oysters once flourished in the coastal waters around New Jersey and New York City, the original population plummeted after years of ...