A little bit of good news from the environmentalists standpoint as well as the
malacologists.
Sarah Watson
 
 
Oysters Return to Hudson River
 
 YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) -- Oysters have been found in the Hudson River for the
first time in decades, although they won't be showing up on menus anytime
soon.
 
``Finding these oysters, to me, is an exclamation point,'' said Bob Walters,
director of the Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers.
 
The oysters -- four as big as 3 inches across and six about the size of a dime
-- were pulled from the river last week at the Palisade Boat Club in Yonkers.
 
Oysters have been found in New York Harbor, where the Hudson meets the
Atlantic Ocean, but none north of the city. Environmentalists see the
discovery as evidence that the Hudson, which once had vast beds of oysters, is
getting cleaner.
 
However, the mollusks would not be fit to eat because of remaining river
pollutants, officials said.
 
Among the reasons cited for the oysters' mid-century disappearance are
pollution, changes in the river's salinity and the silting of beds from
shipping and construction.
 
Buddy Long, the boater who found them, said he is used to finding things that
do not belong in the water. In the past he has pulled up outboard motors, auto
parts and a 15-foot albino python.