--- title: "Pacific Oyster (Magallana gigas) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "A stay-put oyster that starts life male, hears underwater sound and filters up to 50 gallons of seawater a day." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/pacific-oyster-1.webp" published: "2026-10-11" updated: "2026-10-11" --- # Pacific Oyster (*Magallana gigas*) > **Status**: Checked against 5 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: A stay-put oyster that starts life male, hears underwater sound and filters up to 50 gallons of seawater a day. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: IDM & Glitch Ambient Synthesis // Kelly Lee Owens, "Melt!" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/1f4cKwcKfNiLbQr8x2tZ3C) > **Vibe Match**: A Pacific oyster can hear: in a lab test, oysters briefly shut their valves to loud enough sounds from 10 hertz to just under 1,000 hertz, and their sensitivity peaked between 10 and 200 hertz. Kelly Lee Owens builds Melt! on a heavy kick drum and deep bass, the low end of the sound where an oyster listens hardest. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Magallana gigas* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Not Evaluated ([IUCN Red List](https://www.iucnredlist.org/)) - **Superpower**: Filters up to 50 gallons of seawater a day - **Habitat**: Shallow brackish and coastal waters of the northwest Pacific, from Hong Kong to Kamchatka; introduced across the rest of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean - **Diet**: Filter feeder that lives on plankton - **Tags**: mollusc, invertebrate, ocean, filter-feeder ## Natural History & Behavior ## An oyster that can hear a cargo ship The Pacific oyster, *Magallana gigas*, stays in one place for life once it settles. That is what "sessile" means. Yet it can hear. In a lab test, oysters briefly shut their valves when they were played loud enough sounds from 10 hertz to just under 1,000 hertz. Valves are the two halves of the shell. Hertz counts sound waves per second. Their sensitivity peaked between 10 and 200 hertz. In a 14-day test with cadmium, a metal pollutant, in the water, oysters exposed to cargo ship noise grew 2.6 times slower than oysters that heard no ship noise. They also stayed shut more during the day. > **Shell clapping** > Male oysters release their sperm by clapping their shells together, often when the water is warm and coming in with the tide. ## Male first, maybe female later In their first year of life, Pacific oysters are male. As they get older, some develop female reproductive organs while their male organs shrink. A female can release anywhere from 50 to 200 million eggs in a spawning event. The tiny larvae drift in the upper layers of the water. After about 20 to 22 days they settle on a shell, rock or other suitable surface, grow their own shells and can live there for the rest of their lives. ## Size, weight and lifespan NOAA says a Pacific oyster can reach 10 to 12 inches. Its shell is long, thick and rough, and sometimes sharp around the edges. One of the two valves is cupped, which is why the animal is also called the Pacific cupped oyster. The other valve is flat. In one hearing study, five oysters with shells 70 to 75 millimeters long weighed 72 grams on average. AnAge lists a maximum of 7 years in the wild. ## A water filter that went global Oysters are filter feeders. An adult can filter up to 50 gallons of seawater a day, and that filtering improves light penetration for underwater plants. Oysters can also form reefs that give critical habitat to many species, including fish and invertebrates like the native Olympia oyster. The species is native to the northwest Pacific, from Hong Kong east to Taiwan and north to Kamchatka, Russia. It lives in intertidal and subtidal areas, meaning both the shore zone that the tide uncovers and the water below it. The Washington State Department of Fisheries introduced it from Japan in the 1920s, and it is now a popular aquaculture species on the US West Coast. SeaLifeBase lists it as introduced across the rest of the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How big can a Pacific oyster get? NOAA Fisheries gives a length of up to 12 inches, about as long as a school ruler. *(Source: [NOAA Fisheries]())* ### How long does a Pacific oyster live? The longest AnAge records in the wild is 7 years, and it rates that figure as resting on a small sample. *(Source: [AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database]())* ### How deep and how warm is the water it lives in? SeaLifeBase gives a depth range of 0 to 15 meters and a temperature range of 15 to 30 degrees Celsius. *(Source: [SeaLifeBase]())* ### Is a Pacific oyster the same animal as Crassostrea gigas? Yes. NOAA Fisheries lists both Crassostrea gigas and Magallana gigas for the species, which it also calls the Japanese oyster, Miyagi oyster and Pacific cupped oyster. *(Source: [NOAA Fisheries]())* ## Sources 1. [Pacific Oyster. NOAA Fisheries.]() 2. [Magallana gigas summary page. SeaLifeBase.]() 3. [Crassostrea gigas. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database.]() 4. [Charifi et al. (2017). The sense of hearing in the Pacific oyster, Magallana gigas. PLOS ONE.]() 5. [Charifi et al. (2018). Noise pollution limits metal bioaccumulation and growth rate in a filter feeder, the Pacific oyster Magallana gigas. PLOS ONE.]() *Published October 11, 2026. 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