Oysters: A New York Harbor Story
A mound of shell at Governors Island undergoes a curing process by exposure to the natural elements. The shells are gathered through the Shell Collection Program in partnership with 40 restaurants throughout the city and Billion Oyster Project. In 2020 Billion Oyster Project collected 120,000 lbs (150 cubic yards) and 216,000 lbs (270 cubic yards) in 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the numbers were lower than prior years. These oysters would otherwise have gone into landfills. These shells are repurposed to reef sites and form self-sustaining oyster populations. Billion Oyster Project hopes to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035.
For two field seasons, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, I documented the work of the Restoration Team at Billion Oyster Project to highlight their creative solutions to restore a billion oysters to the New York Harbor by 2023. BOP partners with local restaurants, through their shell collection program to give oysters destined for landfills a new life by their implementation in local reef sites.
Through this project, I sought to turn my camera on the problem solvers and spotlight the amount of work that goes into urban oyster restoration—from start to finish and the people that make this work special. Below, the process is broken in different sections with detailed explanations of their fieldwork.
Part One: Governors Island: Curing and Cleaning of Shells
Details of the mound of shells on Governor’s Island.
Katie Mosher, Senior Director of Programs with Billion Oyster Project prepares to “bridle” a stack of super trays of clean shell. These trays are transported and loaded into the tanks at their remote setting facility at Red Hook Terminals.
Shells are washed using a tumbler. Volunteers and Billion Oyster Project staff remove rocks and trash from the shell and load them into super trays.
Antoine Mier, Remote Setting Technician and New York Harbor School Aquaculture student alumni, carries super trays of clean shell to prepare for transport to the remote setting facility at Red Hook Terminals.
Johnny Anderson, Fabrication Coordinator, with Billion Oyster Project, loads cured shells into the tumbler for processing and cleaning.
Danielle Bissett, Director of Restoration with Billion Oyster Project sprays some water to cool off after cleaning the shell on July 21, 2021 at Governors Island.
Billion Oyster Project staff members take a lunch break at the Yellow House on Governors Island. The Yellow House is Billion Oyster Project’s public exhibit space. Prior to COVID-19, the public could tour the facility.
Part Two: Remote Setting Facility at Red Hook Terminal; setting of oyster larvae, preparing of oysters for installation sites
Rebecca Resner, left, Hatchery Manager, and Ben LoGuidice, Hatchery Technician, wait for oyster larvae to reach the ambient air temperature before they place them into their remote setting tanks – modified shipping containers – which are filled with water from the Buttermilk Channel. Loaded into the containers are stacks of super trays, filled with clean shell, transported from Governors Island. The oyster larvae are sourced from Muscongus Bay Aquaculture in Maine, and the larvae swim around in the water before cementing themselves onto the cured, recycled shells, after which they are referred to as “spat.”
LoGuidice carefully unwraps a bundle of larvae in a water container where they will acclimate the water temperature and become active before being placed in the remote setting tanks filled with shells that will be deployed at Hudson River Park Trust, Pier 26.
LoGuidice and Resner inspect the larvae to make sure they are swimming before releasing them into the remote setting tanks. Larvae develop a foot to swim around and then use it to attach to shell.
Resner prepares to release larvae into a remote setting tank.
Spat on shell sit in a tray before being removed by the team to conduct spat counts.
LoGuidice and Bissett prepare to unload oysters for a spat count. Following the larvae setting, Billion Oyster Project cares for spat for 5-10 days before deployment. The team then inspects a subset of the spat on shell to count the the number of spat per shell, which then will be extrapolated out to calculate the total number of spat on shell deployed to various restoration sites throughout New York Harbor.
Antoine Mier and Briana Leddy prepare to transfer super trays of shell from the remote setting tanks to conduct spat counts.
LoGuidice, Bissett, and Khoury laugh as they attempt to exit a remote setting tank. Although the work at Billion Oyster Project is intensive the staff have formed a close knit team where they also find time to enjoy their work and laugh together.
Resner counts spat. The team counted a total of 720 shells with an average of 16 spat per shell, which totaled an average of 16,825 spat on shell of the subsample counted. The team then extrapolated out to the total amount of shell, which totaled 2,759,236 spat on shell for this setting event. This spat will be deployed at various sites throughout New York Harbor.
Khoury and LoGuidice spray the spat to prevent them from drying out and dying during the counts.
LoGuidice demonstrates how to identify spat on a shell. Holding the shell carefully, gently remove any sediment on the shell while looking for spat which have a distinct shape and color. With a hand counter, click each time you see a spat, and look on all sides of the shell.
Khoury examines a shell for spat. Spat can be difficult to see with the naked eye and microscopes are sometimes needed to aid the process.
Bissett oversees the placement of reef balls into the remote setting tanks. Reef balls are hollow concrete structures that have rough surface area - a perfect surface for which oyster larvae to set. The reef balls are typically used for living shoreline projects that enhance marine habitat while protecting against shoreline erosion through the attenuation of current and wave energy.
LoGuidice helps guide and place the reef balls into a remote setting tank. These reef balls will be deployed at Pier 26 in the Hudson River.
Part Three: Installation at Hudson River Park (Pier 26)
Anderson and Mosher view the installation at Hudson River Park Trust aboard Billion Oyster Project’s working vessel, Attractive Nuisance.
Installation of an oyster reef station at Pier 26 in the Hudson River for the Hudson River Park Trust. They deployed 96 reef balls and 80 gabions, all set with oyster larvae, which totaled approximately 11,000,000 spat deployed.
Part IV: Spat on shell deployment to Soundview Reefs in the Bronx
Seven million excess spat on shell are deployed to the reef at Soundview reef. Billion Oyster Project had an extremely successful setting event at the remote setting facility at Red Hook Terminals due to an experiment run in one of the tanks.
Mike Abegg, owner of Brooklyn Marine Services and longtime supporter of Billion Oyster Project and New York Harbor School, looks out over Soundview from aboard his vessel Helen.
Billion Oyster Project staff and volunteers coordinate the deployment of spat on shell to the reef at Soundview, which is located at the confluence of the East River and Bronx River in the Bronx.
Antoine Mier deploys spat on shell to the reef at Soundview.
Khoury oversaw the deployment of spat on shell to Soundview reefs. Since 2020, Khoury serves as the Billion Oyster Project’s project manager for the collaborative restoration efforts at Soundview.
Part V: Field Work and Monitoring of Oyster Reefs (The Bronx)
Low tide early morning on May 26, 2021 at Soundview in the Bronx, during which much of the subtidal reef could be seen. In 2003, wild oysters were discovered at Soundview Park, which led NYC Parks to pilot studies. From 2010-2014, NYC Parks, NY/NJ Baykeeper, the Hudson River Foundation, Bronx River Alliance, and Rocking the Boat partnered to construct and monitor two successive pilot reefs and shoreline recruitment. In the summers of 2020 and 2021 Billion Oyster Project and the same team of partners installed a total of 169 gabions, approximately 600 cubic yards of blank shell, and approximately 20 cubic yards of spat on shell to Soundview, introducing approximately 19 million oysters across 5 acres.
Dr. Allison Fitzgerald, NY Oyster Program Coordinator for NY/NJ Baykeeper, looks out over Soundview on the morning of May 26, 2021. Each year, she oversees monthly monitoring events with students and adult volunteers, collecting data on oyster growth and mortality, species biodiversity, reef ecology, and water quality. Allison completed her PhD (CUNY Graduate School) in oyster ecotoxicology, and is an assistant professor at New Jersey City University and frequently brings her students out to the reef to perform research on various aspects of urban marine ecology.
Dr. Fitzgerald and Khoury carry gear down to the shoreline to use for field monitoring.
Dr. Fitzgerald smiles with excitement upon finding an adult oyster at Soundview. Adult oysters can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day.
Gabions exposed at low tide. Gabions are 4’ x 2’ x 2’ steel structures with a mesh insert welded inside a rebar frame. Filled with recycled and cured oyster shell on Governors Island, gabions are filled with spat on shell at their remote setting facility at Red Hook Terminals, loaded into the setting tanks, and barged upriver to the deployment site. An on-board crane is used to deploy each unit. The units are brought to the surface to monitor recruitment, growth, and survivorship.
Khoury inspects one of the community reef cabinets. Cabinets are 4’ x 2’ x 2’ steel structures in which mesh files filled with oysters are suspended from rebar hangers for monitoring.
A shell pile at low tide. Low tide allows for shore-based wading to access the reef for monitoring activities.
Mosher and Jim Lodge, Senior Scientist with Hudson River Foundation and Soundview project partner, take quadrat samples from a shell pile at Soundview to measure oyster shell height, a parameter used to determine growth rate, and oyster density, used to determine mortality. Quadrat samples are used when oysters are cemented to structures.
LoGuidice inspects an oyster shell.
Meredith Comi, Restoration Program Director with NY/NJ Baykeeper, wades towards a gabion to monitor oysters for growth.
Billion Oyster Project and volunteers from Hudson RIver Foundation, NY/NJ Baykeeper, take a photograph with a gabion filled with thriving oysters from the Bronx River at the Soundview site.
Part V: Fabrication and Planning for next field season
The Yellow House on Governors Island pictured on March 30, 2021. Billion Oyster Project staff lead volunteer fabrication events at the Yellow House to build reef structures, like gabions, for projects.
Billion Oyster Project staff gather to build a piling wrap prototype to pilot at Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
LoGuidice, left and Khoury laugh as they build a piling wrap prototype at the Yellow House. The piling wrap is a prototype designed and fabricated by the Restoration Team over several months, with design input from other restoration practitioners within New York Harbor.
Bissett, left and Khoury discuss the installation logistics of the piling wrap prototype prior to their departure for Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Bissett carries parts of the piling wrap from the Yellow House to the Eco Dock.
LoGuidice left and Bissett laugh as they load gear onto the small golf cart they use to navigate around Governors Island.
Oyster clusters from the Eco Dock on Governors Island. Wild oysters are reef builders, and grow off of each other in clusters, whereas farmed oysters are produced as single shell oysters for easier consumption.
Khoury inspects juvenile oysters on the Eco Dock.
From left to right: Bissett, Anderson, LoGuidice and Khoury fill a piling wrap prototype with oysters at the Eco Dock. This piling wrap will be installed beneath the esplanade at Domino Park. The Eco Dock is one of Billion Oyster Project’s nurseries, more specifically a holding nursery for juvenile oysters, where spat on shell are suspended in super trays and cared for before they’re deployed at various sites throughout New York Harbor.
