Shell Museum Lecture: Oysters

Dr. Melissa May leads Florida Gulf Coast University’s oyster monitoring research program in Estero Bay. Oysters are mollusks and essential members of coastal water ecosystems. These shelled animals play an important role in the health of water and their reefs provide homes and food for other marine animals. They act as indicators for declines in water quality or other stressors imposed on estuarine ecosystems and help to clean the water by filtering large volumes of water through their shells. Dr. May’s talk will focus on the range of threats to the health of oysters and other mollusks in Southwest Florida (in addition to freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee), with an emphasis on new her new research program in Estero Bay.

The Celebrating 25 Years lecture series is free, but registration is required at ShellMuseum.org.