Recycling oysters to improve the environment

Recycled oyster shells are being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico off the Charlotte County coast to help improve the life of sea creatures.

On Wednesday, crews followed a barge into Turtle Bay. On board were 40 tons of the shells hauled in from Lake County.

“Adding these recycled shells to create new habitat and add a large number of new oysters into the system to filter quality and help improve this water quality is key,” said Logan Kennovin with the Coastal Conservation Association.

The Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) calls oysters the estuarine ecosystem engineers, so each time they recycle them back into the water, they improve this ecosystem.

The health of Turtle Bay can be difficult since these waters are impacted by several factors.

“It’s mostly poor quality and low-quality freshwater entering the system from Lake O that is very high in toxic nutrients that causes these large algae blooms that end up killing off the seagrass, oysters and our keystone species,” said Kennovin.

These shellfish are part of the original building blocks of a healthy ecosystem, so by dumping these shells you improve the water quality and species living here can thrive.

One adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water.

Pile after pile was dumped into the harbor, creating what looked like small oyster islands breaching the water’s surface.

“We are putting them just below the water line to give them a nice height so that no storm comes and flatten it and make it nothing again. It’s been very successful,” said Michael Brimer, President of the Charlotte County Chapter of Coastal Conservation Association.

Crews have dropped more than 100 tons of oysters into Charlotte Harbor over the last four years.

The team is already seeing the benefits, but this is a long-term plan, improving the environment one oyster at a time.

Experts say oyster larvae in the water will almost immediately help create new oyster beds, which will help clean the water, improve fish and wildlife habitats and help reduce coastal erosion.