#4586 · 🐌 snails, slugs & other molluscs
Pacific Oyster
🇳🇱 Japanse oester ·Magallana gigas
🐌 Snails, slugs & other molluscs 📍 in the Netherlands (introduced)
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The Pacific oyster , Japanese oyster or Miyagi oyster ( Magallana gigas ) (previously Crassostrea gigas ), is an oyster native to the Pacific coast of Asia. It has become an introduced species in North America, Australia, Europe, and New Zealand.
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
- Spotted 243 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #18 most seen of the snails, slugs & other molluscs in NL.
- 17,841 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Not originally Dutch: it was introduced to the Netherlands.
fact sheet
- English
- Pacific Oyster
- Nederlands
- Japanse oester
- scientific name
- Magallana gigas
- class
- Bivalvia
- order
- Ostreida
- family
- Ostreidae
- in NL
- introduced
- sightings in NL
- 243
- sightings in Europe
- 4,621
- sightings worldwide
- 17,841
- GBIF records in NL
- 30,933
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
relatives· Ostreidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 605992, Wikidata Q61695262, GBIF 7820753, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.