Lately, I’ve been doing meta-analysis for my postdoc, working with NO live animals, so I’m excited to see living animals from the ocean. When I’m not in Maryland, I’m in La Jolla, CA. We’re fortunate to live a block from the ocean and we walk our pup Wilson there whenever we can.

I found some familiar animals in the rocky intertidal there. Heyyyyyy, oysters. What are you doing here? Typically, Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) are found in bays. It’s unusual to find them on open coasts, living with pink volcano barnacles (Tetraclita rubescens) here.

La Jolla is no stranger to oysters. In fact, I was reviewing some oyster work from almost a century ago (Coe 1931) and they describe an oyster population that settled on gear hanging off Scripps pier all year round! It’s fun seeing familiar faces (shells) in other places.

Coe, W.R. (1931) Sexual rhythm in the California oyster (Ostrea lurida). Science, 74, 247-249.