Third Annual Shell-A-Bration on the Delaware Bay

Photo via restorenjbayshore.org

The Third Annual Shell-A-Bration on the Delaware Bay in New Jersey will be held on Saturday April 8th at 12:30pm - 4:30pm at Thompsons Beach, 163 Thompson Beach Road in Delmont.

You can volunteer to help "shell-a-brate" building a fourth oyster reef at Thompsons Beach in the Delaware Bay. The work will involve carrying bags of shell to a site just off the beach.

Dress to get wet and dirty. Layers are recommended as it may be chillier on the Bay. And you may want to bring a change of clothes for after the work is completed.

Following the reef build, enjoy a small campfire on the beach, a picnic-style lunch provided by Spanky's BBQ and family-friendly activities.

The American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation have helped restore beaches at a number of locations following Hurricane Sandy and is now working to establish near-shore shell bars at three of those sites. The reefs will prevent sand loss from wind driven waves. We have already established oyster reef living shorelines at South Reeds Beach, Moores Beach and Dyers Cove.

Although registration is not required, it is recommended. Please contact Quinn Whitesall quinn@littoralsociety.org for more information or to register.

Volunteers Needed for Delaware Bay Reef Build on October 1

October 1, 2016

Delaware Bay Reef Build

2 PM- 6 PM

Dyers Cove

Dyers Creek Road

Newport, NJ 08345

Come lend a hand building an oyster reef at Dyers Cove in the Delaware Bay. The work will involve carrying bags of whelk shells to a site just off the beach. Layers and a change of clothes are recommended as it may be chillier on the Bay and the work can get messy. Gloves, snacks, and beverages will be provided for volunteers.

The American Littoral Society has restored 7 beaches following Hurricane Sandy and is now working to establish near-shore shell bars at those sites to prevent sand loss from wind-driven waves and have already established an oyster reef at South Reeds and Moores beaches.

For more information on Littoral Society reef building projects, see http://www.restorenjbayshore.org/oyster-reef-construction.html?utm_source=www.endangerednj.blogspot.com or contact Quinn Whitesall quinn@littoralsociety.org

South Reeds Beach oyster reef April 2015

Shell-a-Bration on the Delaware Bayshore This Weekend

Everyone is "whelk-come" to join American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation for their Shell-a-Bration on Saturday, April 4 at South Reeds Beach on the Delaware Bayshore from 2-6 PM.

Enjoy a bonfire on the beach, BBQ and oysters, and family-friendly activities! Volunteers will help build an oyster reef throughout the day to test whether the reef bars help reduce beach erosion and create calmer water for spawning horseshoe crabs.

For details and more information visit www.restorenjbayshore.org/shell-a-bration.html

Oyster Farming in NJ

I didn't know that oysters love to eat algae. In fact, that is all they eat.

They take in cloudy water, filter out the algae and other forms of phytoplankton and push out crystal clear water. That sounds like a pretty good deal for our water. A juvenile oyster can filter 25 gallons of water a day and an adult can double that.

I discovered this in an article in NJ Monthly that was not so much about the environment as it was about the 40 North Oyster Farm and providing oysters for dining.

13-week-old oysters in Matt Gregg's gloved hand need to triple in size
before they go to market      Photo by Eric Levin

A century ago, the Delaware Bay alone produced more than a million bushels of oysters a year, but harvests fell to an annual average of 36,600 bushels in the 1990s.

There has been a comeback and over the last decade the yield has averaged 72,000 bushels a year.

An oyster farm provides clean water and Essential Fish Habitat which increases the sunlight reaching down, which in time also means in a place like Barnegat Bay that eel grass that serve as an incubator for baby fish increases.

Matt Gregg is the founder of 40 North Oyster Farm in Mantoloking, the northernmost oyster farm in the state at 40 degrees north latitude. At the University of Rhode Island, he majored in marine and coastal policy, minored in aquaculture and fisheries, and was inspired by Mark Kurlansky’s book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. 40 North seeded its first beds in 2011.

Our Jersey coastline was once plentiful with oysters. The state had an industry that boomed until greed and overfishing and later parasitic shellfish diseases destroyed the oyster beds in the 1950s and again in the 1990s.

Most of the oystering in New Jersey is now on the Delaware Bay with a dozen sites. That means you can eat a Jersey-raised Wellfleet, a Chincoteague, a Cape May Salt, a 40 North or any other Eastern Oyster. Let's also give a thank you to the Eastern species to Rutgers. The disease-resistant Rutgers oyster was developed by the late Harold H. Haskin (who has the Shellfish Research Laboratory in Port Norris named for him).

The 40 North farm was another victim of Superstorm Sandy. With their boat destroyed,  they couldn’t get their gear out of the water in time and the oysters got covered with mud and slowly died.

He has since partnered with New York restaurateur Chris Cannon who is turning the Vail Mansion in Morristown into Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen, set to open next spring. Cannon is looking to use Jersey farms, breweries and purveyors to supply the restaurant. cannon gets a stake in 40 North and the farm gets a cash infusion.

I have never been a real fan of eating oysters. I was told to chew, not gulp, but I still have not developed a taste for them. Maybe I need to develop a palate for the merroir of the kinds of Eastern Oyster that New Jersey offers. Maybe an oyster tasting in Morristown next spring?

Project PORTS Seeking Volunters for Oyster Restoration

shells with spat

Project PORTS (Promoting Oyster Restoration through Schools) is a community-based restoration project that engages school children in activities associated with the enhancement of oyster habitat at the Gandy's Beach Oyster Restoration Enhancement Area.

Students construct shell bags, which are deployed in the bay to become a settlement surface, and home to millions of young oysters. Participating schools, PORTS Partner Schools, receive a truckload of clam shells, which are placed in stretchy mesh bags by students on site at the school. The bags are then transported to a lower Bay Cape Shore site where they are deployed for two months in the summer to capture the settling oysters known as spat.

According to the Littoral Society, the oysters have set a bit late this year, but they are growing nicely on the shell bags that were deployed in June.

They need volunteers to help with the oyster transplant on August 23rd and 24th in Green Creek, NJ. The estimated start times are: 8:30 am on the 23rd 8:00 am on the 24th. The work on the 23rd will be consolidating the bags into a few piles (min. age: 10). The work on the 24th will be moving, transporting, and emptying the bags onto the oyster boat (min. age: 15).

If you can assist with this project please email bill@littoralsociety.org

The oyster spat (a baby oyster or larvae) and shell are transplanted to the upper Bay Gandy's Beach location where they grow, thrive, and provide important ecological benefits to the Bay ecosystem.

This work complements the State and Federal fishery-centered restoration efforts and demonstrates a way that local citizens can invest in the Delaware Bay and feel a personal commitment for its stewardship.


These young oysters are transplanted to upper bay conservation and fishery areas in early August.

Mature oyster

The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica is one of, if not the most important species of the Delaware Estuary.

Dating back thousands of years, the oyster has served as a keystone organism in the estuary, positively influencing water quality and providing food, habitat, and refuge to countless organisms.

Challenged by disease, habitat deterioration, and overfishing, the resource is presently a fraction of what it once was.