©iStockphoto.com/Zilli
A native of Chile, sometimes exported.
Eastern coast of North America and the Gulf Coast.
Size | Extra Large or Counts |
Large or Extra Select |
Medium or Select |
Small or Standard |
Very Small |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. in a pint | less than 20 | 20–26 | 26–38 | 38–63 | more than 63 |
The original oyster of Europe. It is sometimes cultivated in North America, on both coasts.
Number | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 00 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | petit | moyen | grand | très grand | ||
Weight in grams | 40 | 50 | 60 | 75 | 90 | 100 |
Imported from southern Japan (Nagasaki area) to the west Coast of North America.
The original West Coast oyster, almost wiped out by overfishing in the nineteenth century. Small.
Native to northern Japan (Miyagi prefecture) In 1919 a load of dead oysters from Japan was dumped in Samish Bay, Washington. Since an epidemic devastated the Portuguese oyster (Crassostrea angulata) between 1968 and 1972, Crassostrea gigas has become by far the most commonly cultivated oyster in France.
Reportedly exceptional individuals of this species have grown to 400 mm (15+ inches).
Size | Large | Medium | Small | Extra Small |
---|---|---|---|---|
No. in a pint |
less than 8 | 8–12 | 12–18 | more than 18 |
The French designate sizes of “huîtres creuse” by numbers:
Number | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | petit | moyen | grand | très grand | ||
Weight in grams | 30-45 | 46-65 | 66-85 | 86-110 | 111-150 | >150 |
from the Global Invasive Species databank
In the sixteenth century, Portuguese merchant ships returning from Asia accidentally introduced an Asian oyster to Portugal. In 1868, a cargo of supposedly dead oysters was dumped in the estuary of the Gironde River. They flourished. Many suspect that Crassostrea angulata and Crassostrea gigas are the same species.
Native to China.
Data gathered by NOAA and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce to support consideration of the introduction of this species in the Chesapeake Bay. Links and a bibliography.
Native to New South Wales. Formerly called Saccostrea commercialis (Iredale and Roughley 1933). Australian species code: 00 653001.
Claires are shallow salt water ponds.
Courtesy Département Charente-Maritime
Eleanor Clark.
The Oysters of Locmariaquer.
Pantheon Books, 1964.
Allan Ovenden Collard.
The oyster and dredgers of Whitstable... published with the sanction of the
Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company.
London: Joseph Collard, 1902.
Rowan Jacobsen.
A Geography of Oysters. The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North
America.
Bloomsbury, 2007.
Mark Kurlansky.
The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell.
Ballantine Books, c 2006.
John R. Philpots.
Oysters, and all about them. A complete history of the titular subject,
exhaustive on all points of necessary and curious information from the earliest
writers to those of the present time, with numerous additions, facts, and notes.
2 volumes.
London: John Richardson and Co., 1890-1891.
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Last revised: 9 October 2003.