FIGARO TOMORROW – A project started in 2014 aims to place one billion oysters in New York Bay by 2035 to return to the original water quality that was crystal clear and teeming with marine life. The seashell has the ability to purify water.
By Eva Botkin-Kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor (United States)
Most New Yorkers wouldn’t dream of eating a fish caught in Big Apple Bay! But things may well change. A team of high school students, scientists and volunteers are mobilizing to relocate the shell. “Through the restoration of a billion oysters, we hope to rehabilitate the port in the consciousness of New Yorkers”, explains Pete Malinowski, executive director of the project which aims to restore oyster reefs in the port: the Billion Oyster Project (“Project a billion oysters” in English).
This project would be a form of homecoming. In fact, when Europeans first settled the area, the water was crystal clear and the seafood was so plentiful that it could be harvested in whole baskets, says the legend. The oyster crops were abundant. Indeed, the opulence was such that they were sold on street corners as hot dogs are today. But all that has changed due to overexploitation, dredging and a tide of pollution. The oyster reefs are gone, and the harbor has remained etched in the minds of New Yorkers as a no-go zone.
Yet oysters are more than a popular appetizer on our plates. They help purify water, while their reefs provide habitat for a variety of aquatic species and act as a barrier to storm surges that could otherwise devastate shorelines. “You don’t lose out on having oysters. We always win, ”says Gulnihal Ozbay, a researcher at Delaware State University specializing in marine habitat restoration.
Much of the pollution that plagues the bay today comes from sewer runoff, which occurs when heavy rains overwhelm the town’s sewage system and dump sewage into the harbor. These contain a lot of nitrogen, an essential nutrient for plants and animals, but the excess of which triggers the proliferation of algae that can suck oxygen from the water to create what are called zones dead.
Oysters, effective water filters
The cure? Oysters, according to Pete Malinowski and Gulnihal Ozbay, among others. Animals which feed by suspensivore microphagy (extraction of nutrient particles suspended in the aquatic environment), as effective filters, oysters eliminate nitrogen and incorporate it into their shells and tissues. Near oyster reefs, the water is often clearer.
Oysters weren’t completely gone when the Billion Oyster project started in 2014. Nonetheless
survivors were few and far between and probably formed few reefs. However, these reefs are essential for the reproduction of these shells since external fertilization occurs in these places, releasing eggs and sperm into a water column where larvae are formed. These baby oysters must then find a hook and they like the shells of adult oysters.
As part of the Billion Oyster Project, these older shells come from restaurants around town. Students at the New York Harbor School on Governors Island grow oysters and guide them through their development before placing entire colonies, raised together, in the harbor.
A project to raise awareness
Their goal is to place a billion oysters in the port by 2035. They still probably won’t be edible, with the project focused more on long-term restoration. Pete Malinowski admits, however, that a billion oysters will not end the pollution of the port, mainly because water flows through the region. If the water in the port was stagnant, he explains, a billion oysters could completely filter it every three days.
Faced with the scale of the challenge, the Billion Oyster Project aims to educate the next generation of New Yorkers about the port and stimulate their interest in its restoration and protection. “The main benefit is that the students are involved in creating a team of people who care about the port and will want to protect it,” says John Waldman, biologist at Queens College and author of the book. Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Marine Life and Environment of New York Harbor.
Whales have reappeared
“The enthusiasm of the children and teachers is palpable,” says Dr Waldman, who is not part of the project. “They are so involved, it’s wonderful to see.” For Kaya Aras, a final year student at New York Harbor School, the harbor has long been a place to be avoided. But having worked on the project, he sees it in a different light. “I hope that the port will one day return to the way it was in colonial times,” he says.
The harbor is already cleaner and more vibrant than some might think, according to Dr. Waldman. Whales have reappeared in recent years, a few miles from downtown Manhattan. Last summer, sonar from the Hudson River revealed the presence of a 4.2-meter-long sturgeon swimming in its depths.
“People just don’t know what’s going on there,” says Dr. Waldman. “There is a real gap between the perception of the current state of the port and reality”. But, he says, thanks to projects like this, “the tide is turning.”
This article is published as part of Earth Beats, an international and collaborative initiative bringing together 18 media from around the world, including Figaro Demain, around solutions to waste and pollution.
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