Concrete Reef Balls Provide a Nursery for Bay’s Oysters
LOOKUP The Associated Press OYSTER T he continuing effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s native oyster brought students bearing 200 concrete balls to this Eastern Shore seaside village.
They came from Charlottesville last week to complete a yearlong effort to shape then sink the spheres in the salty, shallow waters as a habitat for native oysters.
The experiment brought together a diverse group: The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Allied Concrete Co. and the Tandem Friends School.
One year ago, Allied’s president, Gus Lorder, approached the conservancy after reading that concrete might be a suitable habitat for struggling oysters.
“Having grown up in southern Louisiana and having spent so much of my time in the salt marsh, both at work and play, habitat restoration has always been a concern of mine,” Lorder said.
As a result, his Charlottesville company donated about $50,000 worth of materials and concrete, which students at the Tandem Friends School, also in Charlottesville, spent months shaping into reef balls.
Each orb weighs about 40 pounds and is 18 inches wide. Each artificial biosphere is a nursery for oyster babies, or spat, to attach themselves, feed, hide, grow, spawn and perhaps survive.
The balls are off-limits to commercial harvesters.
The experiment is the latest twist in alternative materials to attract and grow native oysters. Native stocks have nearly disappeared from the Chesapeake Bay and other coastal waters, removing a key natural filter of pollutants and nearly wiping out a once-thriving industry.
Disease, lost habitat and overfishing are mostly to blame for the demise.
Last week, more than 200 balls were set at two locations: in Magothy Bay near Skidmore Island, and in shallows next to a lighthouse on Smith Island. An additional 90 orbs will be deployed this month at a third site, also off Smith Island.
“Let’s try it and see how it works,” said Barry Truitt, a senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy on the Eastern Shore. The environmental group owns Smith Island and 13 other barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean that collectively form the Virginia Coast Reserve.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission, a state agency that regulates seafood, approved the experiment unanimously in May. The Army Corps of Engineers also approved a permit.
The concrete experiment cost about $214,000, with the state, the federal government, Allied Concrete and The Nature Conservancy chipping in.
If the concrete orbs are successful, Allied wants to expand the experiment next year, including projects elsewhere in Virginia, including waters linked to the Chesapeake Bay, Truitt said.
“It can’t hurt to try,” he said. “What do we have to lose?”
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
(c) 2007 Richmond Times – Dispatch. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.