What experts say are “by far” the biggest wild oysters to be found in the Hudson River near Manhattan in over a century have been discovered at Pier 25 in Tribeca.

​

Interns for the Hudson River Park Trust found the giant bivalves living on the bottom of two floating docks after the wooden structures had been pulled out of the water for maintenance late last month. The biggest one was 18.5 centimeters, or about 7.3 inches.

​

“We found hundreds and hundreds of oysters,” said Carrie Roble, director of science and stewardship for the Hudson River Park Trust. “We only collected some of the largest ones. Many of them being around 6 to 7 inches, many exceeding 12 ounces.”

​

Those bigger oysters, hosting an array of barnacles, mussels and algae, were placed in cages that now hang from a floating dock at Pier 40, near Houston Street.

​

Cathy Drew, director of the The River Project, which has been studying the local oyster population since 1996, said that some of the newly discovered creatures are far bigger and several years older than the largest ones she has seen so far.

​

READ MORE

​

​