One of the most commonly asked questions I receive while shucking oysters at parties are, how do oysters reproduce?
Very differently from you and I. Oysters are not exactly male or female. They are protandric which means they can change from male to female over their life. Oysters start off as male and then turn to female for the majority of their lifespan.
During an oysters spawning season, the young male releases his sperm and the older females release their eggs. Sometimes up to hundreds of million eggs. One the met they develop larvae.
Larvae takes 6 hours to develop and a few weeks to settle into another oyster shell or rocky place. Now they are spat and take one year to mature. Once mature they can begin reproducing yet not always ready to be harvested for consumption.