The piers of the Big Apple is being attacked yet again. No, it's not Godzilla or whatever giant reptile there may be that decides to scramble through to American borders. While the culprits also come from the water, they are by no means giants, although the damage that they can do is in no way small.

Critters, not seen in hundreds of years, have once again reached the shorelines of New York and are eating away at the wooden ships and piers. The weird part is, they're attributing it to the clean waters. Says Chris Martin (no, not the singer of Coldplay) of the Hudson River Park Trust, "As the river gets cleaner, it's getting easier for things to live in it...We don't make the piers out of wood anymore because of them."

The critters, shrimp-like crustaceans, grow up to about one-17th of an inch in length and attack wood from the outside. Shipworms, on the other hand, latch onto the outside of wood and burrow inward, growing up to several feet long, enjoying their happy meal of piers and woodplanks.

While gribbles require higher levels of salinity compared to shipworms, hence, not being much of a threat to many New York spots, there still are certain areas that have experienced the attack of these invisible critters thriving below the sea. And of course, the fisherfolks are in no way pleased about having their ships turned for lunch meals by these centuries-old creatures.