Overview

Birth of a Coral Island

Nature of Coral

Flowers of the Reef

The Echinoderms

Amazing Defensive Weapon

Turtles of the Reef

Strange Behavior of Reef Crabs

A Deadly Killer

World's Largest Shellfish

Strange Oysters of the Reef

Rare fish of the Coral Seas

Unusual Vegetation

Birds in Millions

Angling Unsurpassed

strange oysters of the reef

Oysters flourish among the islands of the Great Barrier Reef and, as might be expected in this region of animal curiosities, some very interesting types occur. Here one finds the world's largest oyster. Of the true edible oyster — not the pearl variety — some specimens have actually weighed 7 pounds. There is an oyster shaped like a leaf which attaches itself to the branches of horny coral by finger-like processes. Another, the "cockscomb" oyster, has deeply scalloped edges resembling the comb of a rooster.

Sea-Oyster. The most prolific oyster of the Barrier Reef is the so-called sea oyster. It frequently forms the crown of nigger-heads — great coral boulders that have been washed up on to the crests of reefs during cyclones. The sea oyster is found in greatest- abundance, however, attached to the rocks of the mainland islands situated between the Great Barrier Reef and the Queensland coast. If you sail off one of these islands when the tide is out you will probably notice a great -whitish band, three or four feet deep, extending from one end of the island to the other. If you land, you will find that the white band is com­posed almost exclusively of oysters, mil-lions of them extending for miles along the coast. So densely crowded do they grow in some places that they are forced up from the rocks and may then consist of a column of solid limestone, two or three inches long, with the oyster lying in a cup at its extremity.