#4807 · 🐌 snails, slugs & other molluscs
Eastern Oyster
🇳🇱 Amerikaanse oester ·Crassostrea virginica
📍 Meadow Ln, Southampton, NY 11968, USA
📍 Upper New York Bay, Jersey City, NJ, US
📍 Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Newbury, MA, US
📍 Simonton Cove, South Portland, ME, US
📍 Jackson County, MS, USA
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Jessica Utrup · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Fabio Moretzsohn · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © pyta · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © botanygirl · CC BY 4.0
- 5. © wh162546 · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. Meadow Ln, Southampton, NY 11968, USA:© Steven Rosenthal · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. Upper New York Bay, Jersey City, NJ, US:© George · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Newbury, MA, US:© Jonathan Layman · CC BY 4.0
- 9. Simonton Cove, South Portland, ME, US:© Jamien · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. Jackson County, MS, USA:© Janet Wright · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The eastern oyster ( Crassostrea virginica )—also called Wellfleet oyster , Atlantic oyster , Virginia oyster , or American oyster —is a species of true oyster native to the eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of North America. It is also farmed in Puget Sound, Washington, where it is known as the Totten Inlet Virginica . Eastern oysters are and have been very popular commercially. Today, less than 1% of the original 17th-century population (when the original colonists arrived) is thought to...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 18,683 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1791 (235 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Eastern Oyster
- Nederlands
- Amerikaanse oester
- scientific name
- Crassostrea virginica
- class
- Bivalvia
- order
- Ostreida
- family
- Ostreidae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 18,683
- GBIF records in NL
- 13
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1791 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin
relatives· Ostreidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 47585, Wikidata Q468415, GBIF 2286079, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.