It may be hard to believe, but the waters around New York City were once the most fertile beds in the world. Charles Dickens, in his journal of his American travels, marveled that the bivalves were so abundant that blue collar workers ate them for lunch.
(That, according to at least one food historian, is how the “oyster bar” was born.)
Anyway, harvesting them from the city’s waterways has been severely restricted for about a century. Since the late 1990s, however, attempts to re-introduce them have been successful. Still, health and environmental authorities warn against eating them.
Rats along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, apparently, didn’t get the memo . When an environmental group installed beds along the waterway, the rodents seemed to know that humans spend good money to wash them down with Chablis. Le vin being unavailable, the gray-tailed grabbers made do with Eau de Gowanus.
So, I had to chuckle when I saw this:
Some students have planted oysters to study the health of the harbor. The sign warns against eating them. Pardon my ignorance, but I think that sign says plenty.
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