Before each depuration trial,500 oysters were removed from the oyster farm and transferred to Auburn University Shellfish Lab. Each oyster was scrubbed to remove fouling and left at ambient air temperature(25-30 oC) for 18 h. After this temperature abuse, 150 oysters were placed into each of three tanks and 12 oysters were frozen at-20 oc for future condition index measurements. At the end of each trial, 12 oysters were removed from each tank and frozen at-20 oc until condition index measurements could be taken.