California Sea Grant College Program

The project hypotheses were as follows: A. Oyster recruitment will be higher at inner bay sites than the outer bay sites and density of recruits will be positively associated with adult oyster density. B. Mortality due to predators will be greater in the inner bay than the outer bay sites. C. Introduced predators have a greater per capita impact on oysters than native predators. D. Growth rates of oysters will be higher in the inner bay than the outer bay. E. Mortality due to overgrowth by space competitors will be higher in the inner bay than the outer bay. F. Oyster growth and survival will be higher at inner bay sites and will show a positive linear increase with increasing temperature and phytoplankton abundance.