Thursday, September 06, 2007

Sterile Is A State Of Mind

WTOP News is reporting that around 100 Asian oysters (Crassostrea ariakensis) "escaped" from their cage in the Chesapeake Bay after being hit by a boat anchor. Of course, being oysters, they didn't just run off, but they are missing (more than 500 other oysters from the same cage were recovered). Part of an experiment to determine the feasibility of raising Asian oysters in the Bay, the test subjects were sterile, though there is a small risk that sterilized oysters can revert back to being sexually viable. Scientists say the chance of the escaped oysters having even survived the incident is small.

Tip of the virtual hat to the Smalltalk blog for posting about this story.

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