I recently read the book Big Oyster by Mark Kulansky and it is full of interesting history and trivia about oysters and the New York City area.

Couple highlights:

- Despite a very poor "nutrient to harvest cost" ratio, humans have been eating oysters for thousands of years

- Oyster shells were piled up by Native Americans. These piles were never more than a certain distance from the shore (I believe something like 60 ft). In addition, the shells at the bottom of these piles were usually larger than at the top implying that over harvesting led to smaller oysters both then and now

- Despite different sizes, shapes etc all oysters on the eastern seaboard of the United States are all the same species

The book is full of great lines too e.g. "New York is not a city that plans; it creates situations and then deals with them"