May 18, 2018

Oyster Recycling Program Ready for Summer Season

by S-FX.com

oyster shell bucket

By Juliet Kaszas-Hoch, The Sandpaper (May 16, 2018)

Last Monday, the Oyster Recycling Program truck left Long Beach Township (LBT) and visited a dozen local restaurants to pick up oyster shells the establishments collect following their customers’ meals. The day’s tally was 21 baskets, said Angela Andersen, township sustainability coordinator. Soon, pickup will increase to three days a week, as area businesses shift into high gear for summer.

The program, a community collective driven by LBT, Parsons Seafood, Stockton University, Jetty and its Jetty Rock Foundation, involves gathering empty oyster shells from partner restaurants for use to raise more oysters in Barnegat Bay. Baby oysters – spat – require a hard shell on which to grow; this is what the recycling initiative provides.

Oyster restoration comprises the creation of reefs with oyster shells set with larvae. With grant funding provided by the Barnegat Bay Partnership, Stockton University and Parsons created a new oyster reef in the southern part of the bay near Tuckerton. (For more information about the project, read “One Small Build for Oyster Kind,” BBP blog post dated May 7, 2018.) The shells collected through the Oyster Recycling Program are being used to continue to grow this reef.

Long Beach Township picks up empty shells – stored in green, bushel-size fish baskets, provided by the program – from the participating businesses, and takes them to Parsons or Stockton, where they cure for six months. They are then set with spat in the Parsons mariculture tanks before Stockton vessels deploy them onto the reef site and monitor the growth and survivorability.

“We really have to get our oyster reefs and clam beds back to where they were, for two reasons: It keeps the water clean, and it’s part of the heritage of Barnegat Bay,” township Mayor Joseph Mancini said when the shell recycling program began.

Today, fortunately, oyster farming is making a comeback, with benefit to the bay – to its cleanliness and biodiversity – as well as to the local economy, and to diners, who are now able to enjoy more-plentiful oysters from various nearby farms, with each type of oyster offering its own unique taste.

“People can help the bay just by eating shellfish: from the raw bar to the reef,” said Andersen. “Local sustainable seafood is becoming an abundant option for diners.”

Local restaurants are now readying for the busy season, which means more oysters eaten and more shells to collect. Current partners include: Ship Bottom Shellfish; The Arlington, in Ship Bottom; Howard’s Restaurant in Beach Haven Gardens; Delaware Oyster House in Beach Haven Terrace; Blue Water Café in Haven Beach; Stefano’s in North Beach Haven; Bistro 14, Parker’s Garage, The Black Whale, Tuckers Tavern and Triton in Beach Haven; The Old Causeway and Mud City Crab House in Manahawkin; and, beginning Memorial Day, Boulevard Clams in Surf City.

For more information on the Oyster Recycling Program, visit followtheshell on Instagram and Twitter, or jettylife.com/pages/jetty-oyster-recycling-program, or look for information about #followtheshell at the participating restaurants.

Explore More Insights from Barnegat Bay

Dive deeper into the ongoing efforts to protect and restore our environment with more updates and initiatives that you can take part in. Check out our latest blog posts for valuable tips and insights.

View All

UNKNOWN

There is limited data available to quantify Wetland and Riparian Buffer Preservation, or updated data to quantify Wetland Acreage. The BBP has obtained funding and will begin assessment efforts for both targets, in the next few years.

 

 Hard Clam abundance has not been updated since 2012. Recovery of the stock will be guided by the Fishery Management Plan for Hard Clams, which is under development with the NJDEP, BBP, and other organizations. Reclam the Bay and other partners have continued to plant clams for restoration purposes. Continued plantings in strategic locations which maximize survival and reproduction is one strategy to pursue in the coming years. This work can use a model developed by Rutgers with BBP funding which identified areas where planted clams could have the greatest dispersal of their larvae and thus potentially maximally contribute to the recovery of the stock.

 Water Withdrawals were over the target in the 2021 report; USGS has not yet completed its latest update, so a definitive determination of status is not available. However, additional NJDEP data show that it is likely that we continue to not meet the target. Per capita water use has gone down, demonstrating the effectiveness of water-saving appliances and practices, but that decrease has been offset by population gains. 


IN PROGRESS

New maps quantifying Submerged Aquatic Vegetation extent were developed, but poor image clarity resulted in a high degree of uncertainty in the total acreage. NJDEP and Rutgers are working to resolve the uncertainty of these maps, and improve the total acreage estimate. Funding has also been obtained for further research and restoration activities. Several groups are developing potential restoration actions.

The USGS has completed the first phase of its study to identify minimum ecological flows in select Barnegat Bay tributaries. USGS scientists compared streamflow statistics between historical and current time periods to better understand trends in watershed flow conditions. This work provides a foundation for developing ecological flow targets in the Barnegat Bay watershed.  Similar to SAV extent, funding (approximately $450K) has been obtained by the BBP to complete the remaining phases necessary for threshold determination.

 

TARGETS ACHIEVED

No targets can be considered “Achieved” at this time.

 

NOT ACHIEVING

Several Public Swimming Beaches exceeded their safe swimming standards more frequently than during their baseline time period (2016-2018).

While most beaches are routinely safe for swimming, several problematic areas such as Beachwood, Hancock, Windward, and several lake beaches need track-down studies and restoration to pinpoint and address sources of bacteria.

Acres of Approved Shellfish Waters decreased from the last report. While this decrease was small, it represents a loss of previously approved waters. Similar to public beaches, track-down studies and restoration work are needed to pinpoint and address sources of bacteria.

 

Oyster Recycling Program Ready for Summer Season

By Juliet Kaszas-Hoch, The Sandpaper (May 16, 2018)

Last Monday, the Oyster Recycling Program truck left Long Beach Township (LBT) and visited a dozen local restaurants to pick up oyster shells the establishments collect following their customers’ meals. The day’s tally was 21 baskets, said Angela Andersen, township sustainability coordinator. Soon, pickup will increase to three days a week, as area businesses shift into high gear for summer.

The program, a community collective driven by LBT, Parsons Seafood, Stockton University, Jetty and its Jetty Rock Foundation, involves gathering empty oyster shells from partner restaurants for use to raise more oysters in Barnegat Bay. Baby oysters – spat – require a hard shell on which to grow; this is what the recycling initiative provides.

Oyster restoration comprises the creation of reefs with oyster shells set with larvae. With grant funding provided by the Barnegat Bay Partnership, Stockton University and Parsons created a new oyster reef in the southern part of the bay near Tuckerton. (For more information about the project, read “One Small Build for Oyster Kind,” BBP blog post dated May 7, 2018.) The shells collected through the Oyster Recycling Program are being used to continue to grow this reef.

Long Beach Township picks up empty shells – stored in green, bushel-size fish baskets, provided by the program – from the participating businesses, and takes them to Parsons or Stockton, where they cure for six months. They are then set with spat in the Parsons mariculture tanks before Stockton vessels deploy them onto the reef site and monitor the growth and survivorability.

“We really have to get our oyster reefs and clam beds back to where they were, for two reasons: It keeps the water clean, and it’s part of the heritage of Barnegat Bay,” township Mayor Joseph Mancini said when the shell recycling program began.

Today, fortunately, oyster farming is making a comeback, with benefit to the bay – to its cleanliness and biodiversity – as well as to the local economy, and to diners, who are now able to enjoy more-plentiful oysters from various nearby farms, with each type of oyster offering its own unique taste.

“People can help the bay just by eating shellfish: from the raw bar to the reef,” said Andersen. “Local sustainable seafood is becoming an abundant option for diners.”

Local restaurants are now readying for the busy season, which means more oysters eaten and more shells to collect. Current partners include: Ship Bottom Shellfish; The Arlington, in Ship Bottom; Howard’s Restaurant in Beach Haven Gardens; Delaware Oyster House in Beach Haven Terrace; Blue Water Café in Haven Beach; Stefano’s in North Beach Haven; Bistro 14, Parker’s Garage, The Black Whale, Tuckers Tavern and Triton in Beach Haven; The Old Causeway and Mud City Crab House in Manahawkin; and, beginning Memorial Day, Boulevard Clams in Surf City.

For more information on the Oyster Recycling Program, visit followtheshell on Instagram and Twitter, or jettylife.com/pages/jetty-oyster-recycling-program, or look for information about #followtheshell at the participating restaurants.

Contact Oyster Recycling Program Ready for Summer SeasonContact Oyster Recycling Program Ready for Summer Season
oyster shell bucket
Photo credit: Ryan Morrill