Large Quahog Pearl Found at Fish Market

By Christine Sampson

November 25, 2020

Everyone knows you can get a great cup of chowder at Gosman's Fish Market in Montauk. Soon, one lucky customer may get a special side dish with that chowder: a giant pearl discovered by cooks at the market on Nov. 13.

The pearl is approximately 20 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a gumball, and has a gray and purple sheen to it. It most likely came from a batch of clams dug in Mattituck, according to Bryan Gosman, a co-owner of the fish market. He said in an interview that when the kitchen staff told him about it, he thought someone was playing a joke on him.

"We were making New England chowder in our kitchen," he said. "I personally know pearls can come from the quahog clam, but I've never really seen one. . . . Usually it's the size of your pinky nail or something like that, but this looked like a plastic knob. It didn't look real."


"Almost all pearls that people buy now are cultured, so it's unique to find something that's actually made from an irritant," Ms. Harris said by phone last week. "The shape is beautiful."

It's the biggest pearl she has ever seen outside of a museum, she said. "Even in the diamond district, if you get pearls, they're not that size," she said. "Normally the average pearl size that you buy is like 8 to 12 millimeters."

Read entire article here: https://www.easthamptonstar.com/villages-business/20201125/gosmans-cooks-find-giant-pearl-chowder-clam