July 7, 2014 — Paul Greenberg so desires to revive the New York City oyster that he did the unthinkable: He ate a New York City oyster. Not a Bluepoint from Long Island Sound, mind you. No, the author of "American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood" opted for what might be called an East River oyster. He found the bivalve in the mud of a Bronx inlet, around the bend from LaGuardia Airport and the Rikers Island correctional facility.
The author reminds us that locally harvested oysters were once an essential part of the New York diet—the area was home to some three trillion oysters. "In the mid-1800s, the average New Yorker spent more on oysters than on butcher meat," he points out. "Eating three or four dozen at a sitting was the norm." Unfortunately, all those oysters in the city's salt marshes were unable to handle the waste and chemical pollution that in the coming decades would be produced by ships, factories and the ever-growing human population. During the early 20th century, according to Mr. Greenberg, 600 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the city's waterways each day. New York oysters, rather than acting as natural water filters, were traps for diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. By the 1960s what few oysters were left in the harbor were no longer fit for human consumption.
It's not only the plight of the New York oyster that upsets Mr. Greenberg. A lifelong fisherman, he is just as concerned about Gulf shrimp. Shrimp is by far the most popular seafood in the American diet (ahead of tuna and salmon) and, with its chewy texture, appeals to those of us who are averse to other seafood. Today, Mr. Greenberg observes, "the average American eats more than four pounds of it a year." He is reminded of an old Beefsteak Charlie's commercial, in which a couple feasts on an all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet, stuffing themselves silly by the time their steaks arrive. "Steak?" the couple says.
Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal