Baykeeper Oyster Restoration Program
by NY/NJ Baykeeper
Posted 02/12/2009
The Latest Updates on the
NY/NJ Baykeeper Oyster Program:
Volunteer Spotlights:
The Oyster Restoration Program would like to offer many thanks to all of our volunteer Oyster Gardeners for doing such a wonderful job. Below is a spotlight on two groups that really stood out this year:
1. Bayonne School District
The Bayonne Oyster Gardeners started participating in the Oyster Gardening Program in Fall 2007, with just two gardens of 500 oysters each. Students and teachers from Bayonne High School and the Woodrow Wilson School were not sure that their oysters would survive the extremely urban waters of Newark Bay. Not only did the oysters survive there, but they grew just as well as the oysters of our non-urban volunteers.
This success prompted Tom Tokar of Bayonne HS, and Larissa Drennan, Catherine Quinn, and Barbara Karafky of Woodrow Wilson School to expand the Bayonne Oyster Gardening to include all of the 12 schools in the Bayonne district. In addition, the oyster gardens are carrying 1,000 oysters this year, increased from 500 in the 07-08 season.
The Bayonne volunteers have also been helping to spread the word about Baykeeper’s Oyster Restoration Efforts by gaining media attention. They were recently featured in a front-page article of the NJ section of the New York Times (link) and will be featured in a story for the publication of the National Education Association.
2. Sea Bright Citizens
Citizens in Sea Bright, NJ became the first to join Baykeeper’s Oyster Gardening Program as a town-wide effort. Several interest meetings were held in the Spring of 2008 at the request of Councilman Tom Scriven and Mayor Maria Fernandes, including one small meeting with the neighbors of Atlantic Way and a larger town-wide presentation at the Sea Bright Public Library. Citizens were very excited by the idea of helping to bring back a historically significant keystone species to their local waters, and as a result Sea Bright Oyster Gardeners will be growing over 10,000 oysters for the program this year.
The Sea Bright Gardeners have also helped to spread the word about Baykeeper’s Oyster Restoration program by gaining media attention. Local newspapers such as The Hub, The Two River Times, and the Asbury Park Press came to the Sea Bright Oyster Gardener Seed Distribution and published articles about their oysters.
Current Issues in Oyster Restoration:
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Proposes Policy on Shellfish Restoration
The New Jersey DEP has privately floated a draft Policy that would significantly impact the capabilities of Baykeeper’s Oyster Restoration Program. The policy calls for abandoning restoration practices in waters that have been classified as “Restricted” or “Prohibited” for shellfish harvest. This essentially deems the vast majority of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary off-limits for oyster restoration.
NJDEP is concerned that if the population of a “commercial viable species”, such as the oyster, is increased in waters that are unsafe for shellfish harvest, that people will illegally harvest the oysters causing a human health risk. Baykeeper feels that the possibility of poaching would be eliminated by the increased patrolling of closed waters by the NJDEP Enforcement Officers, as well as institutional controls to secure the oysters. Oyster restoration—recognized as a very important coastal restoration technique—should not be restricted because of lack of enforcement.
Baykeeper’s Oyster Restoration Program is operating in one of the most urban estuaries on Earth, providing not only a very important and necessary coastal restoration project, but also a very visual and educational opportunity for students and citizens here to understand the importance of clean, healthy waters.
If you’re interested in helping to prevent this policy from being passed, you can write a letter in support of Baykeeper’s Oyster Restoration Program and send it to:
NJDEP Commissioner Mark Mauriello
PO Box 402
Trenton, NJ 08625
Baykeeper’s Oyster Restoration Program Overview
Oysters are vital to the ecological wellbeing of our Estuary. That’s why Baykeeper has been working to restore oyster beds in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary since 1999.
Our volunteer-driven oyster gardening program, combined with a Baykeeper, Bahrs Landing Restaurant, Brookdale Community College, and government partnership program called remote setting, has resulted in the restoration of hundreds-of-thousands of oysters to the Estuary ecosystem – allowing this keystone species to begin playing its natural role in cleansing our waterways.
When Henry Hudson first explored our region in 1609, oyster reefs covered 350 square miles of Estuary, from Sandy Hook north to Ossining on the Hudson, to Raritan Bay, the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, the Arthur Kill and Newark Bay. Up until 1900, these tasty bivalves also supported an extensive commercial fishery that kept much of the New York and New Jersey metro area populace fed with oysters.
Like coral reefs, these oyster reefs also provided habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish, such as striped bass and flounder, and for other marine organisms. Oysters also clean their ecosystem, acting as a natural water filter. As they feed they remove suspended sediments and algae, improving water clarity and enhancing conditions for underwater grasses to grow.
Unfortunately, the oyster population fell dramatically after 1900, due to overharvesting, pollution, disease, and siltation. As the thousands of oysters placed by Baykeeper on newly created beds begin to naturally reproduce, it is hoped that the Hudson-Raritan Estuary will see this keystone species fully restored, allowing Estuary health to dramatically improve.
Baykeeper utilizes a two-prong strategy to achieving oyster restoration:
Oyster gardening:
Oysters aren’t cute or cuddly, but Baykeeper volunteers become surprisingly attached to them as they raise them each winter at bayside locations around the Estuary. School groups, scout troops, marinas and fishing clubs, families, and civic organizations care for small (3/4 inch) “seed” oysters for a year in floating cages. Each summer, volunteers from select locations join with Baykeeper in a release of their oysters (grown to about one and a half inches long) on oyster reefs around the Estuary. The oyster gardening project isn’t just good for oysters and ecosystems. It also gets people involved at the water’s edge and creates an intimate relationship with estuarine ecology. The project helps people look at the Estuary in a new way, seeing it as a vital living resource and becoming Estuary advocates.
Baykeeper will provide training and materials.
For more information, please contact Meredith Comi, Oyster Program Manager at 732-888-9870 or
meredith@nynjbaykeeper.org
Remote setting:
Baykeeper is utilizing “remote setting” technology to grow oysters in support of our restoration efforts. Remote setting is the attachment and metamorphosis of hatchery-raised oyster larvae to shell substrate. Microscopic oyster larvae are released into 450 gallon tanks of saltwater that also contain volunteer-made mesh bags full of shell. The larvae attach themselves to the shell and grow in this protected environment, safe from predators. Once the oysters have “set” on the shell, and grown for about two months, they are ready for release onto newly established oyster beds around the region.
The facility was built in partnership with Bahrs Landing Restaurant, Brookdale Community College Sandy Hook Field Station, and the NOAA Restoration Center.
More Oyster Program Info
For more information about the Oyster Restoration Program and about other Baykeeper Volunteer and Restoration efforts we offer PDF versions of the documents listed. Just click on the document you want to see to download it.
Spring 2006 Special Edition 15th Year Anniversary Issue of The Estuarian An entire edition dedicated to the Oyster Restoration program and other Baykeeper Volunteer programs.
The Baykeeper Oyster Restoration Program Annual Report for 2005.
Baykeeper Oyster Program Planning Document.
Oyster Restoration in the Hudson/Raritan Estuary: What are the challenges? What are the solutions?: A 16 page Conference Summary.
the Oyster Program brochure.
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Oyster Gardener Sites 2007 - 2008
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