Conduct a cost-benefit analysis to assess the most cost-effective methods for spat-on-shell restoration.

Use diploid and triploid seed oysters to determine if using predator cues will improve survival and marketability of off bottom oyster farming.

Increase oyster reef locations restored with spat-on-shell to determine field conditions where this technique is most useful.

The purpose of this research is to develop a new hatchery technique that produces oysters with thicker shells that increases their survival and marketability for aquaculture and reef restoration by exposing oysters to cues from predators in a nursery. Further, thicker shelled oysters may be more valuable due to their shell aesthetics. Preliminary results suggest that exposing oysters to predator exudates in the nursery following settlement causes oysters to develop thicker, stronger shells that are resistant to predation and increase oyster survival. Yet, both remote setting and off-bottom farming are plagued by mortality for predators. Additionally, off-bottom farming of oysters for the half-shell market is also being used to boost oyster production. To combat oyster loss and recover lost ecosystem services from oyster reefs, state agencies in Mississippi and Alabama have initiated remote setting operations whereby oyster larvae are settled onto cultch and then placed onto existing reefs for fisheries enhancement. See more of our information about the biology and restoration of oysters.Oyster populations have declined substantially in Mississippi and Alabama.

Read about oyster gardening and the people who do it in “Homegrown Oysters, Homegrown Activists,” an article in Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant’s magazine. Placing an oyster garden in the right location.Maryland Sea Grant’s oyster gardening guide includes guidance and information about: The goal is to establish self-sustaining, functioning oyster reefs.Īnother goal is to re-establish an economically viable, sustainable oyster fishing industry, which, like the oyster population itself, has declined severely. Volunteers donate the oysters to programs like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Marylanders Grow Oysters. These groups place the oysters in areas of the Bay designated as oyster sanctuaries. After that point, the oysters are mature enough to be set out on the Bay’s bottom or on artificial reefs to continue growing to adulthood.

Volunteer oyster gardeners obtain the seed and raise it for a year on their docks. Much of the oyster seed (“spat on shell”) for oyster-gardening programs in the Bay comes from the Horn Point Oyster Hatchery, whose program director, Don Meritt, is a Maryland Sea Grant Extension specialist. We and our partners developed a guide, Oyster Gardening for Restoration & Education. It offers beginners basic information on setting up and maintaining an oyster garden in the best manner given the environmental conditions for your location. Maryland Sea Grant Extension has supported oyster gardening in several ways. Here's how one organization trains and equips new gardeners: Increasing the number of oysters helps to restore the Bay’s ecosystem to one that is closer to its historic, natural state: healthy, functioning, and diverse. Oysters can help to filter the Bay’s water and, if they grow on a reef, provide important habitat for other fish species. You’ll be doing your part for oyster restoration and learning how oysters contribute to the improvement and health of the Bay’s entire ecosystem. These oysters are later returned to the Bay to help replenish the once-teeming population, which has been decimated by disease, poor water quality, and overfishing. The idea is to raise Eastern oysters - the Bay’s native oyster species - in cages or floats attached to docks. Many residents around the Bay have discovered the fun and satisfaction of cultivating their own oyster gardens. On the Bay: Chesapeake Quarterly's BlogĪround the Chesapeake Bay, gardening can mean more than planting lettuce and tomatoes in your back yard each summer.Fellowship Experiences: A Students' Blog.

Grant for oyster spat