Biodiversity & Conservation

Native oyster - Ostrea edulis - General information

Ostrea edulis

Image Keith Hiscock - A view of the upper (right) side of a native oyster attached to pebbles. Image width ca 5 cm.
Image copyright information

  • #
  • #
Distribution map

Ostrea edulis recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Ostrea edulis?
If so please submit your record.

  • UK_BAP
  • OSPAR

General information

Key Icon Researched by: Angus Jackson and Catherine Wilding Text page icon Refereed by: This information is not refereed.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy

Phylum Mollusca Snails, slugs, mussels, cockles, clams & squid
Class Bivalvia Clams, cockles, mussels, oysters, and scallops
Map icon Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland Widely distributed around the British Isles but less so on the east and north-east coasts of Britain and Ireland. The main stocks are now in the west coast of Scotland, the south-east and Thames estuary, the Solent, the River Fal, and Lough Foyle.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Ostrea edulis is associated with highly productive estuarine and shallow coastal water habitats on firm bottoms of mud, rocks, muddy sand, muddy gravel with shells and hard silt. In exploited areas, suitable habitat is/has been created in the form of 'cultch' - broken shells and other hard substrata.
Text page icon Description Ostrea edulis is a bivalve mollusc that has an oval or pear-shaped shell with a rough, scaly surface. The two halves (valves) of the shell are different shapes. The left valve is concave and fixed to the substratum, the right being flat and sitting inside the left. The shell is off-white, yellowish or cream in colour with light brown or bluish concentric bands on the right valve. Ostrea edulis grows up to 11 cm long, rarely larger. The inner surfaces are pearly, white or bluish-grey, often with darker blue areas.

This review can be cited as follows:

Angus Jackson and Catherine Wilding 2009. Ostrea edulis. Native oyster. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 04/02/2012]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesfullreview.php?speciesID=3997>