Question

What is the importance of oyster beds ecologically and as a fishery?

Please give details as to how and why.

Answer 1

The oyster beds always serve as a bioindicator of a good health of the sea water habitat. These oysters club/fuse together to form Hard Rock like reefs called as oyster beds.

These oyster beds have different importance ecologically and as a fishery.

Ecological importance:

1. They provide food, jobs and habitat to various commercially important ocean species.
2. Serve as barrier to strong, tides, erosion and provide protection to productibe estuary waters.

Importance as a fishery:

1. The oyster reefs or oysters beds in a fishery serve 2 major role, first being the vacuum cleaner of the fishery area. Oysters are known to clean the surrounding water by filtering out the water and removing all the algae. And second, these oysters are commercially important and expensive Protein source in many countries.
2. Provide a safe nursery for commercially important fishes like, anchovies, herrings, blue .
3. The oyster reefs when used for meat, provides a billion dollar value to the economy when harvested sustainably.