Over the course of 10 years, the Billion Oyster Project, one of New York's most ambitious rewilding initiatives, has planted 150 million larvae i

Oysters as large as cheese plates: How New Yorkers are reclaiming their harbour's heritage

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2024-11-19 15:30:05

Over the course of 10 years, the Billion Oyster Project, one of New York's most ambitious rewilding initiatives, has planted 150 million larvae in its harbour. Did it work?

The easter oyster has lived in the Hudson River estuary for at least 6,000 years. With 350 sq miles (900 sq km) of oyster reef, some biologists estimate that the New York harbour used to contain half of the world's oyster population. 

Historically, oysters were deeply woven into the life of East Coast cities, as Charles Dickens described enthusiastically in his travelogue American Notes. On the difference between dinners in London and Boston, for instance, he notes that Americans would serve "at every supper, at least two mighty bowls of hot stewed oysters, in any one of which a half-grown Duke of Clarence might be smothered easily". 

In New York, Dickens describes cellars serving "oysters, pretty nigh as large as cheese-plates". "Dutch reports of foot-long oysters were only slightly exaggerated", confirms Matt Kurlansky in his 2007 bestseller The Big Oyster, a term he coined to signify how important the bivalve was not only to the culinary life of the city, but also its businesses and even its buildings. Kurlansky writes that Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan was built with oyster shell mortar, and the nearby Pearl Street, originally on the waterfront, got its name from a 'midden', a mountain of discarded shells that was apparently located in its vicinity.

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