4/2/2023 0 Comments Students planting oyster spatThis work begs the question did these small scale-shell planting efforts from Project PORTS alter community species abun- dances relative to unenhanced bottom? In other words, has the work of this program impacted the local habitat and the creatures that use it?. The planted shell and attached young oysters have formed a low-relief oyster reef that is now home to several generations of adult oysters. Since the program's start in 2007, student-stewards have constructed approximately 28,000 shell bags supporting the placement of more than 20 million oysters on a five-acre oyster reef restoration site in the Delaware Bay. Although Schultz doesn’t plan to do aquaculture research, seeing the varying oyster growth rates caught his attention. A few weeks later, community volunteers return to transport the 'spatted shell' to the restoration site. Duke Aquafarm started out with 10 oyster bags last year, but had grown to nearly 100 bags this summer, when Schultz and volunteers put out an additional 40,000 oyster spat. Community volunteers of all ages then help transport the bags and deploy them to an area in the Delaware Bay where oyster larvae will attach and become spat. Typically, a truckload of surfclam shell is delivered to participating schools and, after learning about the ecology of oysters and their decline, students fill mesh bags with shell in their schoolyard. Students construct shell bags that are deployed in the Bay to serve as cultch 1 for oyster spat ( Figure 2). community-based restoration project, the core of Project PORTS, extends lessons from the classroom to an authentic application.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |