LB 27-282 - Oyster restoration in New York Harbor: Deploying one billion oysters and engaging one million New Yorkers by 2035

Thursday, August 18, 2022

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

Located in: ESA Exhibit Hall

Presenting Author(s)

JZ

Jennifer Zhu

Marine Habitat Resource Specialist
Billion Oyster Project
New York, New York, United States

Coauthor(s)

DB

Danielle Bissett

Director of Restoration
Billion Oyster Project, United States
TC

Tatiana Castro

Field Coordinator
Billion Oyster Project, United States

Background/Question/Methods:

Established in 2014, the Billion Oyster Project (BOP) is a unique restoration and education initiative aimed at restoring one billion live oysters to New York Harbor and engaging one million New Yorkers in the restoration of their local marine environment. Today, New York City supports a diverse population of over 8.5 million people and a functionally extinct population of eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica. Historically, oyster reefs provide habitat for hundreds of species, and can protect our city from storm damage — softening the blow of large waves, reducing flooding, and preventing erosion along the shorelines. Oysters also filter water as they eat, which clarifies the water and removes certain pollutants, including nitrogen. This is important to urbanized estuaries, where excessive nitrogen is a problem that can trigger algal blooms and create dead zones. Deploying one billion oysters to restore a self-sustaining oyster population to the harbor is a crucial step towards estuarine restoration and proactive planning for global climate change. To ensure the long term health and productivity of the harbor, BOP is working to educate students and the community to protect, care for, monitor and restore the marine environment.

Results/Conclusions:

This presentation highlights the progress and opportunities associated with oyster restoration in an urbanized environment in relation to BOP’s (1) ecological and restoration, (2) community engagement, and (3) educational goals and efforts. BOP works closely with our flagship school, the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School and their career and technical education programs to include students in the restoration process as part of their technical learning experience. Through BOP’s public schools and community science programs, students and New Yorkers are involved in the restoration process from fabricating oyster reef structures to post-installation monitoring. BOP started a Shell Collection Program in 2015, giving restaurants an opportunity to not only divert shells from landfills, but also to reclaim this valuable resource for the restoration of oyster reefs. BOP also collaborates with government, academic, and corporate institutions on various oyster and/or restoration-focused research projects. To date, BOP has collected 1.9 million pounds of shells from restaurants, restored over 75 million oysters and engaged 8,000+ students. Long-term monitoring at 15 oyster reef sites across the five boroughs involves community and student engagement.