Largest Oyster- Richard Mesce sets world record

[May 19] HUMBOLDT BAY,CA,US--Richard Mesce, a retired navy pilot,plucked out of Humboldt Bay a 13 inches long and about 6 inches wide oyster, setting the new world record for the largest oyster.
Photo: Measuring 13 inches long and about 6 inches wide, the oyster is longer than the current recorded largest oyster, which measured in at 12 inches and 5.5 inches wide.

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”It was a challenge,” Mesce said. “It took a long time to find it.”

  The new oyster is longer than the current recorded largest oyster, which measured in at 12 inches and 5.5 inches wide.

   Mesce has been searching for an oyster of this magnitude since he accidentally came across a 10-inch oyster in the same area near the Samoa Bridge in 2006.

   ”I figured if there was that one, that surely there had to be an even larger one to break the record by Chesapeake Bay,” Mesce said.

   He estimates he spent more than 100 hours over the last two years looking for the oyster by kayak, utilizing tide tables and also reading up on oysters.   

  Since noncommercial oyster harvesting is illegal, he had to get special permission from local oyster companies.

   Since the oyster was covered by 8 inches of mud, Mesce guessed its age at about 80-years old.

  Richard Mesce asked James Gast, a retired Humboldt State University oceanography professor, to take the first official measurement Friday morning.

    Mesce said Humboldt State University's Telonicher Marine Laboratory in Trinidad has agreed to keep the oyster in its aquarium and let it grow in a controlled environment. ”So, it'll stay the world's largest oyster,” he said.

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