the heart of Japan's cultured-pearl business, and elsewhere in the country. Experts attribute the initial oyster deaths in 1994 to "red tide," a bloom of microscopic, toxin-producing animals in ...

These translucent animals are known to swim inside clams and oysters to ... commonly known as mother-of-pearl. The oyster diffused this iridescent coating around - and effectively entombing - the fish ...

When debris gets trapped in between the shells of an oyster or other ... little shell beads or donor animal cells into ...

The oyster or mussel slowly secretes layers of aragonite and conchiolin, materials that also make up its shell. This creates a material called nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, which encases the ...