New Jersey man finds a pearl while eating raw clams

A man from Brick got what could turn out to be a very profitable surprise while eating raw clams at a Cape May restaurant: there was pearl inside one of his clams!

According to NJ.com, Michael Spressler and his wife were dining at the Lobster House and he was enjoying his usual appetizer of raw clams on the half shell (with hot sauce and a squirt of lemon), when he bit down on something hard. He thought at first that he had cracked a tooth. That’s when he discovered the pearl.

So, how much is the pearl worth? Good question; it could possibly be worth up to $100,000, but Michael’s wife, Maria, makes it sound like they won’t be selling it, telling CBS 3 Philly, ““I would like to have it set into a nice piece of jewelry, maybe a mermaid or something nautical.”

While pearls are more commonly found in oysters, they can also be formed by clams, although the chances of that are about 1 in 10,000. The one the Spresslers found is 8.8 millimeters (I think that’s big for a pearl, but don’t quote me on that).

The Spresslers have been coming to the Lobster House since 1987. While they were celebrating over 30 years of going there, the Lobster House itself is celebrating 100 years in business.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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