A new study finds oysters are disappearing worldwide. A study published in Bioscience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, found that the oysters are rapidly disappearing, and that 85 percent of their reefs have been lost a result of disease and over-harvesting of the mollusks.

from afp: “Oysters are important to ecosystems because they filter impurities from water and provide food and employment for people living in coastal communities. The decline in oyster population often begins when trawling or dredging destroys the structure of parts of the reef, leaving surviving oysters vulnerable to stresses in the environment.”