Marine Fisheries
Title:	A Local Non-Profit Effort to Restore Oysters to an Eco-System after an Absence of Over a Century
Author(s):	Andrew. T. Jay, Richard Bradshaw, Mathew Brevard, Massachusetts Oyster Project for Clean Water
Date:	Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Time:	10:20 am - 10:40 am
Room:	Lexington
Abstract: "It is widely recognized that mollusks have substantial water purification capabilities and that the oyster is particularly effective at removing silt, phytoplankton, nitrogen carbon dioxide and bacteria from seawater with each filtering 30 gallons per day. It is not widely known that oyster reefs are a highly threatened coastal environment having suffered greater global losses than mangrove forests. Oyster reefs can be a keystone in healthy coastal benthic communities serving as habitat for 100 other species and increasing the number of fish. The Massachusetts Oyster Project for Clean Water (MOP) is a community based non-profit seeking to restore oysters for water purification and enhance ecosystem health. Working in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Boston Conservation Commission, Island Creek Oyster Company and the community, the organization has successfully created a substantial pilot program in the Charles River Estuary. Historical research has shown that oysters once were present in great quantities in the Charles and Mystic Rivers as well as their demise late in the 1800's. However there absence has been for so long and the Harbor in such a sorry state that people had written off the possibility of oysters returning. While specific causes of the oysters demise are not documented considerable habitat was lost to landfill with silt, pollution and human consumption also implicated. Over a two year period 200,000 oysters were sowed via surface disbursal in an area downstream from a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) that releases minimally treated wastewater during times of heavy precipitation in the Charles River estuary. Lessons learned in the first year were incorporated into the second year's placement. These include first surveying the bottom conditions by divers, ensuring the oysters were placed in marked drop zones and using frames to hold measured populations of seed oysters to facilitate tracking survival and growth. In conjunction with UMass Boston, MOP has recently begun an incipient oyster program in Malibu Bay.
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