Nov 10, 2008: Oysters save the world!

Oysters are stocking up on good karma. Recently Louisiana researchers discovered that a fatty substance found in oysters may cure cancer. (Eat up, folks!) The sneaky bivalves have also been transmitting messages from on high... or at least answering the financial prayers of a North Carolina man who found this shell, saw the Virgin Mary, and auctioned it off for $135.00 on Ebay. Oysters do a lot for the water around them, and they're pretty nutritionally interesting too - here's more on oyster calories. Oysters can do remarkable things at ecosystem scale, but the individual animal is pretty remarkable too; see our what is oyster anatomy guide. The pacific oyster is a workhorse of shellfish farms up and down the West Coast, including ours.