奇速英语

Some people see oysters (牡蛎) as delicious food. But some raise oysters to clean up the polluted seawater. Amy, a 15-year-old girl, is one of them. She has won a master oyster gardener prize this year. She thinks oysters are really helpful. They are environmental stars.

“I knew nothing about oyster gardening when I started in 2022. I learned all of this after I completed a free course about it. The course is about raising oysters in cages (笼子),” Amy says.

There used to be lots of oysters in coastal waters. But their numbers have diminished. This is mainly because of some natural disasters. Oyster gardening is a way to help. “Anyone can join,” an oyster gardening researcher Liz Black says.

“You don’t have to do a lot to take care of your oysters, but the influence they have on the environment is huge,” Amy says.

During the oyster gardening season, Amy and her mom go to the beach. There Amy has nine cages. “Once a week I go out there,” she says. She pulls the cages from the water to check conditions of the oysters.

This spring, Amy’s oysters will be big enough to be collected. Amy will go with Liz to pick them up. Oysters that are collected will then be “planted” on the reefs (珊瑚礁). So far, Amy has raised more than 1,500 oysters. She’s a great leader of oyster gardening and a great supporter, too.