ToNS Series #72: Caching on the half shell Traditional Cache
ToNS Series #72: Caching on the half shell
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
All of the caches in this series are located at or near some of my favourite sites in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotians are proud of our heritage and how it has been linked to one of our basic needs, our basic biological requirement to consume sustenance.
This cache is near one of my favourite places. My second cache on the Yarmouth shore and I hit what could be a romantic spot.
Like all oysters, Crassostrea virginica is a bivalve mollusk with a hard calcium-carbonaceous shell. Its shell provides protection from predation.
This particular type of oyster has an important environmental value. Like all oysters, C. virginica is a filter feeder. They suck in water and filter out the plankton and detritus to swallow, then spit the water back out, thus cleaning the water around them. One oyster can filter more than 50 gallons of water in 24 hours. Eastern oysters also provide a key structural element within their ecosystem, making them a foundation species in many environments, and they serve as ecosystem engineers in western Atlantic estuaries. Similar to coral reefs, oyster beds provide key habitat for a variety of different species by creating hard substrate for attachment and habitation. Oyster beds have an estimated 50 times the surface area of an equally sized flat bottom. The beds also attract a high concentration of larger predators looking for food.
The eastern oyster, like all members of the family Ostreidae, can make small pearls to surround particles that enter the shell. These pearls, however, are insignificant in size and of no value; the pearl oyster, from which commercial pearls are harvested, is of a different family.
Don't forget to look for some of the other caches in the series.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Guvf pnpur vf whfg fvggvat nebhaq yvxr n ohzc ba n sebt, be fbzrguvat yvxr gung.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures