Oysters Found at Brooklyn Naval Yard

This weekend was Open House New York, a weekend where some organizations like museums and studios open up spaces to the public. It's an event that I've wanted to check out for three years, but it occurs on Columbus Day weekend so I'm usually in NH. This year I finally was able to participate and I never want to miss it again! Thomas and I had a fun-filled weekend. On Saturday we toured the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the unopened section of the High Line, and the Brooklyn Distillery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On Sunday we went on an Old Croton Aqueduct tour led by the Friends of the Croton Aqueduct and went to a presentation about the restoration of the Westchester Avenue Station next to Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx. Hopefully I'll get the chance to write a blog post about each of these activities because they were each relevant to this blog, but I need to describe the most exciting discovery, which was finding oysters in the Brooklyn Navy Yard!

We went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the first place to visit the Brooklyn Distillery, which is New York City's first distillery since prohibition and was founded in 2010. They just moved to the Paymaster's building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and were offering tours and tastings. It was interesting to learn about the history of alcohol production in the city, but when the tour was finished Thomas and I decided to take a tour of the Navy Yard since we were already there. We had been wanting to check it out for a while but there is always security so Open House New York was the perfect opportunity. We found a pier that had stairs running down the sides into the water.

When we stood on the stairs, we saw that it was some kind of mechanical control room that had been flooded. It made me feel like I was in a wreck. 

The most exciting part was when we looked down and saw oysters attached to the stairs!

 Some of the oysters were quite large (80-90 mm), which are probably between 4 and 5 years old.

We found this dead oyster. Thomas retrieved the top half of the shell to add to my oyster collection. : )

 Sunset over the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The juxtaposition of industry and nature can be quite beautiful. Thanks Thomas for the fantastic photos!

It is interesting that we found oysters here because New York Harbor School just put in an oyster nursery in another location of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This shows that oysters can currently survive here and have been surviving for 4-5 years. You can read more about the NY Harbor School's recent activities here.