The term shellfish can mean crustaceans lobster, crabs and shrimp but RCTB is mostly interested in mollusks. Mollusks includes bivalves. Those are animals that have two shells like clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops.

Shellfish feed on the micro algae in the water column. Filtering water is one of the many services that they provide. In fact, an adult clam will filter about 15 gallons of water a day. An adult oyster will filter 50 gallons of water a day. Think of the impact of millions of shellfish on the environment.

Those facts generate more question that we cover during RCTB educational sessions:

• How do they feed so we can understand why oyster filter more water that do clams.
• What is the life cycle? How they reproduce?
• How are grown commercially
• What are the different roles that play in the environment?