Michelle Lavoie, age 10, of Coventry, R.I., for her question:

DO OYSTERS START AS EGGS?

Along the eastern and Gulf coasts of North America a single female oyster may produce as many as 16 million eggs in a single season. The eggs are simply discharged into the water. The male oyster also discharges his sperm cells into the water.

If the drifting egg cell of the oyster meets a drifting sperm cell in the water, the sperm cell may possibly enter the egg cell. If this happens, the fertilized egg develops into a tiny larva which bears little hair like processes called cilia. The cilia are used to provide swimming movements and the larva goes to the surface of the sea where it stays for about three weeks. When it grows to about one 75th of an inch in diameter it is called a spat and it drops to the floor of the sea where it attaches itself to some solid object and remains for the rest of its life.